Familiar
by Lucifer's Favorite
Summary: AU. Wherein Raven was raised in Hell by Trigon to be his heir, rather than his means of conquering Earth, but when she meets a certain pink-haired thief in need of escape, she doesn't pass up the opportunity to make an escape of her own. (On hiatus, check bio for info)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey ya'll, I was thinking about the movie Venom, (that I've still yet to actually watch, btw), and I thought, what if that, but RaeJinx? Of course, it's nothing like the movie, (I assume), but rather the general idea that very loosely inspired this fic, so let me know what you think.**

**Disclaimer: DC owns the titans**

I

The sound of platform boots slapping against wet pavement echoed throughout the rain-soaked streets of Gotham, followed several minutes later by multiple sets of much heavier feet. A lone thief tries desperately to escape her pursuers, keeping her hood up in a death-grip to hide her shock of bubblegum hair. The stitch in her side was starting to wear her down; she knew she'd need to find a place to hide soon if she wanted to avoid arrest, or worse: running into the Bat.

Spotting an old looking building that appeared to be devoid of all activity in the late hour, the thief decides to try her luck. The door pulls open easily, and she sends a silent thank you to no one in particular as she slips inside. Lowering her drenched hood, slit-pupiled eyes took in her current surroundings, noting with slight exasperation that she was in a church of some kind, if the pews and raised altar were any indication.

"Ugh, I hate irony." Jinx scoffed. "I'm gonna wring the boys' necks when I find 'em." She takes a quick peek outside through the red glass of the windows to make sure she had made it inside undetected before finally letting herself relax a little. She reached a hand into the inner pocket of her jacket to pull out her prize: an iron chain necklace sporting a large ruby.

"You shouldn't be here." A voice called out from no discernible direction, startling Jinx out of her reverie. Pocketing the gem once again, the meta calls her power to the surface, ready to fight if needed. She might have thought it really was Batman if not for the fact that the voice was decidedly female.

"Who's there?!"

"Behind you." Jinx spun around, ready to dish out some bad luck to whoever thought they could sneak up on her, but she stopped cold at the sight that greeted her.

Six glowing red eyes were narrowed in focus on Jinx, sitting above an inhuman mouth filled with two rows of teeth that promised much pain should they get a hold of you; or rather, sitting below, in this case, as their owner was floating upside-down. No other features could be made out as the rest of the face was obscured by the shadows of a hooded black cloak.

The girl, at least Jinx assumed it was the girl that spoke, disappeared into shadow, and Jinx spun around again, this time anticipating where she would be.

"Who are you?" Jinx asked, not letting her guard down. The girl slowly started circling her, appearing to glide over the floor as she eyed the meta with interest.

"I could ask the same of you." It was definitely her, Jinx confirmed, though she thought a teenaged girl's voice seemed out of place on this being that gave off an almost otherworldly feel.

"Alright, tit-for-tat?" Jinx proposed, receiving a nod. "I'm Jinx."

"Raven." The girl said flatly. "What are you doing here?"

"Evading arrest." Jinx didn't hesitate. This girl didn't exactly strike her as the hero type, and in Gotham, if they weren't on one side, it was almost a guarantee they were on the other. "What about you; you live in the bell tower or something?"

"Or something." Raven answered. She lowered herself to the floor, which made Jinx realize she in fact had been floating the entire time. She also realized that Raven was apparently shorter than her, which she thought was pretty amusing, considering how intimidating this girl was.

"I believe they're here for _you_." Raven nodded to the windows, which now displayed the unmistakable flashing lights of police vehicles.

"Is there another way out of here?" Jinx asked quickly.

Raven shook her head. "Those doors are the only exit, I'm afraid."

A thought struck Jinx. "What about you? You can teleport, right? Can you get me out of here?"

Another negative. "I'm bound to this place." Raven was silent for a moment before smiling again. "However, if I were to be bound to something, or some_one, _else, such as a nearby chaos mage who happened to stumble upon this place while running from the authorities, I would hypothetically be able to override the spell and hide my aura within theirs and leave, taking them with me."

"Bound?" Jinx questioned. "What, you mean like a familiar?"

"Something to that effect, minus the servant and master roles." Raven clapped her hands together, saying a few words Jinx couldn't understand. Black flames ignited at her fingertips as she pulled her hands apart. A red sheet of parchment floated between her palms, covered in black writing that was difficult to make out in the unlit church.

"This is a standard binding contract." Raven explained. "It basically entails that you agree to hide me, and in return I protect you from those that seek to harm you."

"I don't know." Jinx hesitated. "I mean we literally just met and I-" The sound of boots coming up to the church doors cut her off.

"On second thought, let's do this." More cops were gathering at the entrance, and Jinx wasn't eager to face down the weapons supplied to the police force by the DMA. "What do I sign with?"

"It's blood magic." Raven stated as if it were obvious.

"Of course it is." Jinx sighed.

"Give me your hand." Jinx complied, but nearly pulled back as her hand was dragged up to the razor pit that was Raven's mouth. She almost didn't feel the break in her skin and had to force herself to keep watching as her thumb was punctured.

Jinx wasted no time in rubbing her wounded digit along the contract, sealing the binding and sending the parchment up in flames.

"It's done." Raven said.

"Great, now let's get the fuck outta here." Jinx hurried her. Raven nodded in acknowledgement and wrapped part of her cloak around Jinx, calling up a bubble of dark energy that would lead both girls to freedom. As well as leave ten Gotham police officers in a state of confusion on finding only an empty building.

* * *

"Sorry." Raven stood over Jinx as she emptied her stomach onto the grass. "I would have said something, but this was my first time teleporting with another person, and I felt there was insufficient time for warning."

Jinx waved her hand at Raven once halfheartedly. "It's fine, I'm fine. Just… let's not take that route for a little while."

"It'll get easier the more you do it." Raven tried to console her.

"Not looking forward to that." Jinx muttered. "Where did you bring us?"

"Bludhaven. This is where your team is expected to rendezvous, yes?" Raven confirmed.

"Yeah. How did you know that?" Jinx asked suspiciously as she stood up. "And how did you know I use chaos magic?"

"I searched your most recent memories when you came into the church to assess your threat level. It was negligible."

"What?" Jinx cried indignantly. "I am so a threat; I'm a dangerous criminal about to be admitted into a world class mercenary training academy. And stay out of my head."

"If you say so."

"Actually, that reminds me…" Jinx stopped arguing further in favour of pulling out her Junior HIVE communicator, scowling at the cartoonish picture of a bee on the top of the device. She dialed the number she wanted and waited for a response.

"Jinx, what a lovely surprise. I almost thought you were going to miss your window." A man in his late forties sat behind a desk on screen. "Where are your teammates?"

"Back at the base." Jinx lied. Well, technically, it was a half-lie, as that's where they were _supposed_ to go; whether they had gotten there by now didn't matter to her. "I figured it would be easier to call you if they couldn't disturb us. You know how much of a handful Mike and Baran can be."

"True enough, I suppose." The man agreed. "I assume you achieved your mission?"

Jinx once again pulled out the necklace, dangling it in front of the screen. "Yup, got it right here."

The man squinted, studying the item. "Excellent work, Jinx; that's a pass for your team. I'll have your paperwork sent through, and the three of you will be expected at HIVE Academy for orientation on Monday. A plane will be waiting for you at GCI the night before."

"Thank you, Professor Stikk." Jinx said calmly before ending the call. "Yes!" She fist pumped once.

"You're awfully excited for someone who was so sure this was going to happen anyway." Raven commented.

"Shut it, you." Jinx told her playfully before she realized something. "Crap! What am I gonna tell the guys? What am I gonna tell HIVE? They don't know about you, and I can't just bring some random guest with me."

Raven shrugged. "Just tell them I'm your familiar, like we said earlier." She reminded Jinx.

"That could work." Jinx conceded. "Can you change into some kind of animal?"

Raven nodded and condensed into solid darkness as she shrunk down. A small black bird stood in her place, staring at Jinx through four red eyes as it let out a horrifying caw from _both_ of its razor filled beaks.

"Creepy." Jinx commented after Raven changed back. "I love it." Raven smirked.

"So, what now?"

"Now," Jinx said, "we go to the base and introduce you to my teammates." Raven held out an arm, as if inviting her for another bout of teleportation. "Nuh uh. We're walking."

"I was merely offering to fly you there." Raven corrected. "But if you'd really rather go on foot…"

"Fine." Jinx accepted. "But go easy; I got nothin' left to puke up, and I hate dry-heaving."

* * *

The team's "base" was much less a place fit for criminal operations, and more of a temporary apartment. Gizmo and Mammoth were playing a video game on the couch when the girls walked in.

"What happened back there?" Jinx asked accusingly. "You guys basically fucked off west and left me on my own."

"Cops were punctual for once and we had to- AAAGH! What the hell is that?!" Gizmo flopped over the back of the couch, pointing a finger at Raven who was floating a head above Jinx, while Mammoth sat frozen in fear at the sight.

"That's Raven. She's my… familiar, basically an assistant for magic stuff; she'll be going with us to HIVE, which, by the way, we'll be starting at on Monday."

"Sweet." Mammoth said, having gotten over his shock. "Does she… talk, or anything?"

"Yes, I can speak." Raven answered, surprising the boys with a relatively normal voice. "Do you have anything to eat?" The question was directed at Jinx.

"Should be something in the fridge." Jinx extended a thumb toward a door off to the left. Raven floated silently to her destination.

"Jesus, Jinx, where'd you find this chick, Demons R Us?" Gizmo asked lowly when he thought she was out of earshot.

"Shut up, she actually got my ass away from the cops, unlike you two." She reprimanded him.

"He's not far off, actually." Raven startled the three of them. "Demon would be the most appropriate term. Hell is boring, but my father wasn't fond of the idea of me socializing with mortals other than his cult members; he believes them beneath me."

"Uh, good to know." Jinx noticed something coated in black floating behind her. "Whatcha got there?"

"Steak." Raven said. Taking a seat on a nearby chair and pulling an end table to her, Jinx noticed a couple of things. First, now that they were under actual light, she could see that Raven's skin was a brilliant scarlet just a shade paler than her eyes, covered in ornate black rune tattoos. The other thing Jinx noticed was that the three steaks, while steaming, were completely raw.

"I see you prefer it on the rare side."

"Cooked meat doesn't agree with me." Raven told them seriously. "Gets rid of all the nutrients in the _blood._" The way Raven's voice just barely changed and hovered on the word blood mildly disturbed her hosts, and seeing the way her teeth tore into her food did nothing to dispel the feeling. She paused after a few bites as if struck by a thought, and raised her short-taloned fingers to her hood. The room's other occupants looked on in fascination as she revealed her face to them.

"Well that's… underwhelming." Jinx noted aloud. Aside from the eyes, Raven had a fairly normal, albeit pretty, face framed by bone white hair that went down behind her into the cloak.

"You were expecting a monster?" Raven smirked.

"Sort of?" Mammoth admitted, voicing all their thoughts.

"I can do that, too, if you'd like to see."

"I think we'll pass." Jinx said. "No need to go giving everyone nightmares."

Raven shrugged again. "Suit yourself. Are there any sort of books here?"

"No, but isn't it kind of late to be reading, anyway?" Jinx looked at her watch, noting that it was after one o'clock in the morning. "Speaking of which, we need to figure out where you're gonna sleep tonight and tomorrow."

"Unnecessary." Raven interrupted Jinx's musings. "My body doesn't require sleep except after severe injury."

"Convenient." Jinx deadpanned. "So, what are you gonna do all night?" Raven shrugged once again. "Wait here, I've got an idea." She quickly ran to a room at the end of a hallway, coming back a few seconds later carrying a device Raven didn't recognize, and handed it to the demoness.

"And this would be?"

"You can use it to listen to music." Jinx explained, showing her the different functions of the mp3 player. "You can sort by album, artist, song, etc. Should be better than sitting in boredom for hours."

"I, appreciate this." Raven thanked her.

"We're gonna need to get you a phone at some point, too." Jinx said. "But I'm guessing you don't know what that is either?"

"Afraid not." Raven affirmed.

"Eh, it's not important right now, I guess. If you're good I'm going to bed; you two:" She addressed her teammates. "Don't annoy her." She pointed to their newest addition.

"Wasn't plannin' to." Mammoth said. "I was gonna head to bed, myself, anyway." Gizmo gave a huff and followed their lead, leaving Raven to her own devices in the living room.

* * *

Jinx awoke the next morning to the sight of Raven floating at the foot of her bed, three pairs of glowing eyes focused on her from under her once again lifted hood.

"You know, keep staring like that, someone's likely to think you're stalking me." Jinx teased.

"Well, I wouldn't be a very good bodyguard if I didn't keep an eye or three on you."

"Hey, is it ever disorienting having all them peepers? Seems like it could cause a headache."

"It might for a human." Raven proposed. "I was born this way, so I've never known anything different."

"Well, as long as they don't follow me into the bathroom, it doesn't really matter to me." Jinx said as she grabbed an outfit to go take a shower.

Thirty minutes later, Jinx came out into the living room feeling much better after not having taken a shower the previous night due to exhaustion.

It was an odd scene she'd walked in on: Gizmo was teaching Raven how to play their game, and Raven was learning exceptionally quickly, going by their respective scores.

Jinx cleared her throat. "So, we've got the day off. What do you guys wanna do?"

"Nothin' _to_ do in this crudmunchin' town." Gizmo pointed out, ever-present scowl fixed in place. "But anything's better'n gettin' beat by your cheatin' girlfriend."

"How could she be cheating?" Jinx questioned. "She doesn't even know what a cell phone is. And she's not my girlfriend, she's just hiding from her dad."

"Whatever."

"Anyway, we don't have to stay in this shithole city. There's plenty to do in Gotham."

"Is that a good idea, Jinx?" Mammoth asked. "I mean we did just rob a museum there last night."

"Yeah, but they never saw what we looked like." Jinx countered. "We'll be fine if we don't do anything overly suspicious."

"Yes, because three metahumans and a demon roaming the streets won't draw any attention." Raven deadpanned.

"Fair point." Jinx admitted. "Can you disguise yourself?"

"Yes." Raven shrouded herself in shadow, and when she dispelled it, she was left looking much more human, aside from a pallor to nearly match Jinx's own. Her hair was black, and her eyes, numbering just two, were dark blue, and her teeth were no longer nightmare inducing. Her cloak was replaced with a hoodie and a pair of shorts, both as dark as the energy she manipulated.

* * *

"I'm gonna kill both of you." Gizmo threatened the two girls in their group before leaning his face back over the trash can to vomit once more. Mammoth was sat down against a wall trying to avoid a similar fate, while Jinx tried, and failed, to suppress her laughter at the two of them.

Moments later, they all exited the alley they had teleported into, Jinx and Raven looking in good spirits, and then just Raven when they realized just where they'd ended up.

Just across the street, cops were swarmed around the very same museum Jinx's team had robbed the night before. That in itself wouldn't have been cause for worry, but the police had an unexpected guest apparently helping their investigation, someone known throughout the hero/villain community almost as well as the Bat himself.

"Who is that?" Raven asked to no one in particular. "His emotions and mental state are… unusual."

"That's Robin." Jinx answered. "He's a vigilante, and someone you definitely want to avoid if you're hanging with our type."

"What do you mean by an 'unusual' mental state?" Mammoth asked.

"Well guarded, hyper-inquisitive, and paranoid about… well, everything."

"Yeah, that's Robin to a T." Gizmo snickered. "Now let's beat it before birdbrain spots us."

"Too late." Raven nodded in the direction of the museum, and the others just noticed Robin walking over to them.

"Excuse me." He called to them. Jinx self-consciously fidgeted with the edges of her own hood, making sure it wouldn't come off unexpectedly. "Do you four know anything about the robbery last night?"

"What's that s'posed to mean?! You accusin' us or somethin'?" Gizmo asked defensively.

"Not at all. But a well-informed citizen can sometimes be a better resource than any official." Robin's body language suggested non-threatening, but the other teens knew he could switch that on a dime.

"In any case," Jinx prevented further escalation from her hot-headed teammate, "we weren't even in the city last night; just got here this morning."

"Understood. You have a nice day." To Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth, that seemed to be the end of it as he walked back to the museum, but what went unnoticed by them did not escape Raven's impressive sensitivities.

"He suspects you."

"Well he can't prove shit." Jinx said adamantly. "Now let's go somewhere that isn't likely to give me an anxiety attack."

* * *

"That movie sucked, Jinx." Gizmo said annoyed. Their small group strolled along the darkened streets of Gotham. The theatre had just finished its last film of the night, and they were all ready to head back to the apartment for the night.

"Oh, stuff it; I never said it was guaranteed it would be good, I just said it looked interesting." Jinx defended. "Hey Rae, can you take us back?"

"We're being watched. I'll take care of this." The demoness disappeared without warning, presumably to go after their spy.

"Oh shit." Jinx looked a bit panicked. "I'm gonna go make sure she doesn't actually kill him."

_"__What do you think you're doing?" _Robin turned at a speed near the upper limits of human capability, bo staff at the ready, but saw only shadows.

"Who's there?" He called into the darkness.

_"__Who I am is irrelevant; what matters is that you're a threat, and you need to be __**eliminated**__." _He froze at her words, but not through fear; his limbs were encased in black, his weapon disintegrated before his eyes. He redoubled his efforts to escape, but whatever this was, was far above even his significant ability.

The next moment really did have him rigid in fear as he saw just what he was up against. A figure rose up out of the floor, towering over him at a height of more than ten feet, she seemed to radiate pure terror and darkness as she glided toward him, obsidian tendrils slinking around his torso.

The thought that death was imminent was nothing new to the boy wonder, but never had it been so concrete as it was when the monster leaned in, stopping with her face just inches away from his own.

**_"_****_You should have learned your place sooner, foolish mortal boy."_** She coated a clawed fist in shadow and plunged it into his chest. There was no pain, but an icy feeling started spreading, getting worse as she slowly retracted her arm. Pinched between her thumb and index finger was a trail of white light leading back into Robin, whose vision was slowly getting darker as the light was pulled farther.

"Raven! Stop!" And she did, at least to look at the one who called to her. Even in his current state, Robin recognized her as one of the teens he had questioned earlier. The monster looked between the two of them a few times before reluctantly dropping her would-be victim to the floor, where he lay gasping as his vision returned to normal.

"Raven, I appreciate the sentiment, but you can't just murder everyone that irritates you." Jinx admonished her.

"He would have presented a problem if left to his own devices." Raven argued. "I was cutting the problem at the root."

"Okay, I can see we're going to need to have a serious talk about what you protecting me means." Jinx pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Look, can you just, erase his memories of this, or something?"

"Very well." Raven looked intently at Robin for several seconds, not breaking eye contact until he'd passed out. "He won't remember who we are, but he _will_ remember the lesson he learned tonight."

"Ya' know what, I'll take it." Jinx sighed again. "Let's just get the guys and head back; I need a shower and a bed." Raven nodded and transported them back to Gizmo and Mammoth, and taking all of them to their temporary residence.

* * *

"So where's this stinkin' plane at?" Gizmo asked impatiently. They were all waiting at Gotham City International Airport, trying to spot the flight that would take them to the next step on their chosen career path.

"Relax, it's still early." Jinx chided him. Absently she rubbed the feathers of the bird on her shoulder. They had all agreed that it would be better if Raven stayed in the form of her namesake until they were officially inside HIVE Academy.

"Actually, I think that's it over there." Mammoth indicated a private jet, decked out in black and gold, with a large H painted on the side.

"Yep, that'd be it." Jinx said happily as they made their way over to the aircraft. She flashed her communicator at the man waiting by the steps of the plane, and he immediately moved to take their bags. He eyed Raven nervously, as if expecting the bird to attack him, but kept his mouth shut.

_'__A valid concern, I suppose.'_ Jinx thought. She had spent much of the day so far setting boundaries for Raven, making sure she wouldn't kill anyone, or consume anyone's soul, as she'd learned that was what Raven had intended for poor Robin before Jinx had intervened, for looking at Jinx the wrong way.

They got settled into their seats, Mammoth smiling widely because for once, he hadn't had to adjust himself at all to fit through the door. The anticipation of what the future held for the teens was palpable, and even Raven seemed excited, or as excited as a demonic bird could seem.

_'__It's only gonna go uphill from here.'_

* * *

**A/N: I'm still working on my main fic, btw, but I need something on the side to keep me from getting burnt out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Before we begin, I'd like to thank deathgundam006 and ravelric for being my first two reviewers on this story. ravelric, yours especially had me grinning like an idiot, lol; I'm glad you think so highly of my writing, and I hope you, as well as my other readers, continue to enjoy reading this fic as much as I do writing it.**

II

"When's this stupid flight supposed to be over?"

"Giz, it's only been an hour." Jinx said. "And why are you whining? We're on a private luxury flight to California, about to be official students at HIVE Academy. That alone will give us benefits out the ass."

"I hate planes." Gizmo scowled. "They're stuffy, they're boring, they hurt my ears, and I'm not allowed to use any of my tech."

"Oh my gods, you sound like a damn toddler who hasn't had his nap yet." Jinx laughed. Gizmo fumed further, sinking in his seat as he glared at Jinx, while Mammoth snored peacefully in his own seat, somehow able to have gotten comfortable enough to fall asleep. "Anyway, we've still got over five hours to go; why don't you make like Baran and try to sleep the rest of the way."

"Don't like sleepin'." Gizmo protested. "Too many ideas to focus on, not enough time in the day." As if to prove his point, he pulled out a notepad and started writing things down, likely invention ideas, not that Jinx actually had any real interest. Aside from absolutely essential stuff like her communicator, she tended to forgo any technology, as her powers didn't exactly get along with electronics.

"How you holding up, Rae?" The little bird made a movement with its wings that Jinx could only assume was supposed to be a shrug, and figured she was probably okay. Deciding to get a little rest of her own, Jinx kicked her feet up on her table, closing her eyes and letting her mind wander.

Naturally, her thoughts drifted toward what awaited them come morning, daydreaming about what the school would be like, and how well she'd stack up against her fellow students. Obviously, she had confidence in her own team, but she had no idea what anyone else would be bringing to the table, and that didn't sit well with her; not knowing things got people killed out in the field.

Raven, likely sensing her slight frustration, landed herself on Jinx's head, giving her one light tap on the forehead. Jinx got the message: relax. She did exactly that as she reminded herself that she now had an uber-powerful demon at her back looking out for her. That definitely brought her some comfort as she didn't imagine any of the HIVE kids would have something that could top that.

"I'll probably be top dog in no time with your help." She looked up at the bird. "But, uh, would you mind getting off my face?"

* * *

Jinx hadn't even realized she'd gone to sleep, but the lights switching on coupled with their stewardess announcing their arrival jolted her awake, apparently disturbing Raven as well, who had been resting atop Jinx's hair, and she focused her ire on the person who had interrupted their temporary serenity, hissing at the nervous flight attendant.

Their bags were waiting for them when they stepped onto the tarmac of HIVE's private runway, and Mammoth took the liberty of shouldering them, leaving the others with only their carry-ons.

A short van ride later, three metahumans and one non-disguised demon were standing in the entrance hall of HIVE Academy, all but Raven marveling at their surroundings.

"Excuse me." A voice caught their collective attention, earning six pairs of eyes turned her way. "Would you happen to be the team led by Jinx?" The speaker was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties, likely new at her job, judging by her frazzled demeanor and the mess of papers in her arms that she tried in vain to keep organized.

"I'm Jinx, and yes, this is my team." The meta introduced herself, sweeping an arm out to the side in gesture to her teammates.

"Great, great; I'm Melanie, and I'll be your guide until you get settled in here. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to sign in and then show you to your rooms." She made sure they acknowledged her before turning on her heel and strolling through a nearby automatic door, complete with cliché pneumatic hiss as it opened for them.

"Tomorrow, you'll get the grand tour of the facility. Normally, we'd do it on the day of arrival but, well, it's almost midnight, and you all have to be up at six for orientation." Their guide stopped in front of a door labeled "Administration", going through several security measures before stepping inside, waiting for the teens to follow her. "This is the administrative office; and this'll likely be the only time you come in here."

"Why?" Gizmo asked irritably. "And why's this room locked up so tight?"

"This is where we keep the physical copies of student files, or at least, back there we do." Melanie pointed to a door at the other end of the office, covered in various signage indicating that the room beyond was off limits to anyone that wasn't staff.

After going through a few filing cabinets and desk drawers, Melanie wore a small, triumphant smile as she pulled out a large three ring binder, setting it on the nearest empty space.

"Here we are. If you'll all sign your legal names, then your code names, we can get you squared away for the night." Jinx went first, turning to an empty page and writing her name, followed by Gizmo, Mammoth, and finally Raven. Melanie grabbed the binder to put it back where she'd retrieved it from, but she did a double take after reading all the names.

"Um, Miss." She looked at Raven. "I'm going to need you to sign this again."

"May I ask why?" Raven squinted, an unnerving action to most people, present company included, but there wasn't an ounce of detectable fear, nervousness, or even slight anxiety coming from this woman. _'Interesting.'_

"Because you've only filled in one section, and it's illegible." She flipped the book around to show the confused demon.

"That is how my name has always been written." Raven insisted.

"Let me see it." Jinx practically snatched the binder away from them, eyes widening at what she found. A series of scratchy, interconnected lines covered the little box, and would look to most people like nothing but gibberish. "Uh… Raven? Would this happen to be the language from _back home?"_

Raven refused to meet Jinx's eyes. "…Yes."

"Okay, well, I kinda think she wants you to write it in English." Jinx suggested.

"I am… unable." There was a barely noticeable blush staining her cheeks, made more difficult to spot due to her skin's natural hue.

"Do you… do you not know how to write in English? And for that matter, can you read it?" Jinx asked her seriously.

Again, Raven looked in six different directions at once to avoid eye contact. "…No."

Jinx frowned. "Why didn't you say something before now? And what were you planning to do with books if you couldn't read them?"

"Pride makes up the core of my being." Raven explained with a shrug, seeming less embarrassed. "Admitting any sort of weakness, even something like this, goes against my nature. And I was hoping that, as a fellow mage, you might have some spell books I could study."

Melanie cleared her throat then, reminding the girls there were others in the room with them, and causing them both to blush this time. "Well, Raven, we here at the HIVE have a variety of language tutors from around the world. And you seem pretty smart already; I'm sure we'll have your little literacy problem fixed in a flash. But for now, would you mind if I got a thumbprint instead."

"That, will also not be possible…" Raven muttered, suddenly finding interest in the walls. "I… don't have fingerprints." She presented her fingers for Melanie to examine, effectively stumping the woman.

"Tell you what." She said after a moment's thought. "The Headmistress will be here in the morning, and she'll be able to get this all sorted out; why don't we go find your rooms."

"Actually, about that…" Jinx said. "She's not technically a HIVE student; we, or I, sort of picked her up last minute, and she doesn't officially exist on any databases. Is it okay if she rooms with me?"

Melanie actually smiled at that, surprising the two of them, though Raven didn't show it. "_That_, I can take care of. 'Ghosts' make up a decent percentage of HIVE students, and we have programs here to get aliases, ID's, passports, and the like."

Jinx released the breath she'd been holding, relief flooding through her at the statement.

"Don't worry, girls, the HIVE takes very good care of its own. Now, is everyone ready?" Jinx looked to make sure the boys had heard her, only to find them playing rock, paper, scissors. Mammoth looked smug as he beat Gizmo for what was likely not the first time.

She sighed agitatedly. "Mike, Baran, let's go!" They both jumped, looking sheepish as they quickly rejoined the girls.

* * *

"And lastly, we have twelve-b, Jinx's room." Melanie pulled out a card and opened a door identical to the dozens of others in the corridor apart from their labels, before giving the key to Jinx. "You'll need to keep this with you until you get your student ID's, unless you want to get locked out."

"I'll keep that in mind." Jinx assured her. She waved Melanie goodnight as she and Raven entered their shared room, dropping her bags next to the entryway. The space was decent, but nothing to write home about; the same black and gold as everything else here. Furniture was sparse, being just a queen-size bed and a small dresser with a mirror, and décor was nonexistent.

She could fix the room up later; right now, the only thing she cared about was grabbing a quick shower and going to bed.

Jinx flopped onto the gunmetal grey sheets with all the grace of drunkard after happy-hour, relishing the soft bedspread under her tired muscles; or what muscles she had, being the twig that she was.

"So, you just gonna stare at me all night, again?" She asked the demon hovering in the center of the room.

"Maybe." Raven admitted. "I might explore this facility if I grow tired of that."

"Well, don't get caught." Jinx warned. "Can't have my big, bad demon getting detention, now can we?"

Raven smirked. "Yes, what ill fate might befall you were I not around to destroy your enemies?" They both smiled, sharing a comfortable silence that Jinx was loath to break, but she needed to ask something important.

"Hey, are you, ya know… okay, with all this? I mean, we did just kinda drag you across the country without really asking your opinion on the whole thing."

"If I recall correctly," Raven said, "and I always recall correctly, _I _suggested binding myself to you. I've never had a chance to explore this mortal plane before, so any experience here will be a new one to me." She smiled. "Besides, I couldn't let the first human I didn't instantly despise be imprisoned."

"Uh, thanks." Jinx hoped her natural pink blush would hide the red one currently gaining traction from Raven's words. "I should get some sleep; I'll see you in the morning."

* * *

"Stinkin' paperwork; stupid formalities." Gizmo mumbled. "Don't they already have this stuff on file?"

"Least you can write properly." Mammoth said. "I can barely keep a hold of these tiny little pens."

"You guys ever thought of maybe _not_ complaining first thing in the morning?" Jinx asked with minimal rancor. "It's bad enough I have to be up this early without you two giving me a headache. And Giz, they need our info to be up to date."

A new presence entering the small classroom they'd been placed in for orientation halted their squabble. She stood about five feet tall, grey hair in a neat bun just so, wearing the black jacketed uniform of all HIVE staff, the school's emblem prominently on display on the left sleeve.

"Good morning new recruits." She greeted, her tone the pinnacle of professionalism. "I am HIVE's headmistress, and will be addressed _only_ as such. I understand someone here had a registration problem; which of you is Raven?" She looked pointedly between the two female students.

The girl in question cleared her throat and stood up. "That would be me."

"Alright, if you'd be so kind as to follow me, we can get everything situated for your stay here." Without waiting for a reply, the Headmistress turned and exited the same door she'd entered, Raven right behind her.

Their journey through the halls was a silent one, not that Raven minded. Idle conversation was something she seldom participated in, and only ever when someone else initiated it.

The Headmistress took them to the end of a hall that looked like it was rarely used, coming to what appeared to be a dead-end. This was proven false, however, when the older woman waved her hand in front of an unassuming patch of wall that opened at her gesture, revealing an opulent office space within. She strolled casually to a large desk, taking her seat with poise as she made another gesture, this one directed at the chairs on the other side of the desk. Raven took the hint and picked the nearer chair, mirroring her temporary companion's elegance in the action.

The Headmistress retrieved a device from the desk that Raven couldn't name, but she did recognize that it utilized the same interactable screen technology that Raven had found to be a fascinating feature of the music player given to her by Jinx. She surmised that it must be used for documentation.

"Alright, Raven, how about we start with the basics; can you give me a last name?"

Raven shook her head. "My people don't employ surnames. Titles are awarded for noteworthy feats, but beyond that, only basic identification is deemed necessary."

"Your people?" The Headmistress raised an eyebrow.

"Demons." Raven clarified. "My childhood was spent predominantly in the underworld."

"Interesting." The Headmistress eyed her, intrigued. She tapped the device rapidly, likely inputting the information. "All the same, could you tell me the names of your parents? That is, assuming demonic reproduction is at least similar to our own; I'm afraid the school is a bit lacking in the more occult magic studies."

"Similar enough." Raven confirmed. "My mother's name is Angela."

"Your mother, a demon… her name is Angela?" The Headmistress looked dubious.

"The irony is not lost on me." Raven smirked.

"Indeed." The Headmistress shared her expression. "And of your father?"

"Erm…" Raven lost her conviction uncharacteristically, knowing her father's reputation. She vetted on how she should proceed, and decided it would be wiser in this instance to simply "barrel forward" as she'd heard it said. "His name is Trigon."

That certainly got a reaction out of the otherwise stoic woman, and she nearly dropped what she was holding. Her shock lasted only seconds before she collected herself, clearing her throat and steeling herself as she sat up straighter.

"You'll have to forgive my indignity." She tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "Even _I _am aware of who your father is."

"An understandable reaction." Raven nodded. "Though, you should know that he's, er, retired, I suppose the word would be; his status of 'Vengeful Interdimensional Demonic War God' is no longer in effect."

"I suppose that's good news for a great many people." The Headmistress quipped.

"An understatement if I've ever heard one."

"Well, I can't argue that." She entered the new information, giving the device a split-second's hesitation. "At any rate, we should get to the next area; what powers do you possess?"

"How long do you have?" Raven deadpanned. "General mastery of sorcery and psionics should cover most of it, along with enhanced strength, senses, reflexes, empathy, and psychokinesis, both physical and astral."

"An impressive list, to be sure." The Headmistress again went to typing on her screen, pausing every few seconds as if in thought. "Next, do you have any previous experience in the field of mercenary work?"

"None."

"Well, training shouldn't present any sort of problem for someone of your status. Though I can't help but wonder, what is the princess of Hell doing in a place like this? Would this not be seen as being below your station?"

"I defer to Jinx." Raven offered by way of explanation. "This is where she wishes to be, so this is where I am."

"Is that so?" Raven nodded. "How exactly would you describe your relationship with Jinx?"

"I am bound to her; I protect her, and in exchange, my whereabouts remain hidden from my father's great sight."

"I see. And if your father were to somehow find you despite this binding?"

"I would likely be confined to the underworld as a result." Raven said. "I can assure you he'll not hold anything against this place for my actions; this school is in no danger from my father, unless it collectively decided to make a move against him."

"Alright, I can accept that." The Headmistress made a few more taps, and gave the device a once-over before setting it back where she'd gotten it from. "Do you have any questions for me?"

"Just one." Raven said. "Why bring me to what I assume is your personal quarters for simple information acquisition?"

"It's what I do for all of our 'ghosts' as Melanie put it. This is the most secure room in the school, and one of the most secure in the nation, and if a student is more inclined to hide their background, rather than simply not knowing it, this place allows them to divulge any sensitive information that would be best kept private, even from my staff." It made sense to Raven, from a logical standpoint.

"Then your discretion is appreciated, but ultimately, unneeded in my case. I have no shame in my origins; my life story is, for the most part, an open book to those who ask."

"An admirable trait." The Headmistress assented. "I'll keep that in mind, but for now, I believe your teammates will be heading to the medical ward about now; you should join them." Raven nodded her agreement and floated away toward where she sensed Jinx.

* * *

The Headmistress had been right; Raven found Jinx and the others just a few feet from a large door marked with a red cross, and labeled with a word Raven assumed was something along the lines of "infirmary". Melanie was busying herself with her ever-present stack of stationery.

"There you are." Jinx smiled at her, and Raven found she enjoyed the sight, though why that was, she couldn't quite figure out, and she tossed the thought away for now. "Everything good?"

Raven nodded. "She asked me about my powers, prior experience, basic things like that."

"Yeah, well, that was the easy part." Jinx smirked. "How do you feel about doctors?"

"Never been to one."

"I figured." Jinx said, grimacing as they entered the ward. She looked over to Raven while they waited for a nurse to show up, and noticed, along with the boys, the slight trail of drool escaping the corner of her lips.

"Uh, here." Mammoth handed her a nearby box of tissues, touching the corner of his own mouth in a miming gesture. Raven took them gratefully, dabbing at the offending liquid. "Something wrong?"

"It's this place." Raven said. "The amount of residual pain, fear, and anguish in just this room is… staggeringly _delicious."_ She cleared her throat. "Sorry."

"Alright, that's just disturbing." Gizmo hopped up on a counter in lieu of any actual chairs. Silence fell until a door opened, and a nurse came in holding a clipboard.

"Jinx's team, I presume?"

"You presume correctly." Jinx answered her.

"Follow me." She led them into the back, passing several doors and ending just short of the end of the hall.

The first hour or so was spent doing standard physical measurements; height, weight, etc., and the eye tests were a memorable experience for all. Then things got interesting as they started doing the more invasive procedures; specifically, drawing blood.

Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth went first, and much as the rest of their time spent with the demoness, things didn't go as expected.

The nurse came into the waiting room, panting as she held up a hand to Mammoth. "Would you… mind giving us a hand with this?"

"Uhh, okay…" He followed her to the room he had recently occupied, watching with slight amusement as the medical staff were trying to get the needle to go into Raven's arm, but her skin seemed to disagree with this idea. "Mind if I try?"

He started pressing down slowly, not wanting to use too much force and end up sending the syringe all the way through her limb. Applying more and more of his impressive strength, though, he could see why they'd failed up to now to penetrate the girl's vein.

Finally, after using enough muscle to curve the barrel of a soviet tank, he managed to make the needle cooperate and go in. The medical staff all sighed with relief, one going to start the machine up.

Despite their place of work, and the kinds of people they routinely saw to, they couldn't help but look on in morbid curiosity as a midnight black, viscous fluid traveled up the IV, filling about half the bag before the needle was forcefully ejected from Raven's arm, landing embedded in the wall.

"That's… new." Curiosity turned to mild horror as the blood in the bag started _moving,_ apparently attempting to escape its new confines as it repeatedly threw itself against the plastic container, notably in Raven's direction.

"Wow." Jinx said after getting the play-by-play. "I feel sorry for the poor bastards if you ever get sick here."

"That won't be a problem." Raven said. "My body does not allow for the spread of infections of any kind."

"Oh god, it's looking at me!" A nurse's voice was heard some distance away.

"Never a dull moment with you, huh?" Jinx laughed. "So, where are we headed next, Melanie?"

"Up next is lunch." Melanie said, not looking up from her paperwork. "After that, you'll be giving a demonstration of your team's performance in the gym. That reminds me, do any of you have any special dietary needs?"

"I don't eat beef." Jinx said. "And Rae's gonna need some raw meat."

"Raw but warmed." Raven added.

"I'll let the cooks know." Melanie said as she led the group to the cafeteria.

* * *

True to her word, Melanie had made sure the cooks had something prepared for Jinx and Raven. Jinx had gotten a chicken and rice substitute for her burger, while Raven was given a few cuts of pork. At least she assumed it was pork; it really didn't make a difference to her as long as it was bleeding.

"Alright, where do we wanna sit?" Jinx looked to Raven.

"That table looks open." She pointed toward a back corner of the lunchroom, where there was indeed an unoccupied table. They strode purposefully, hoping to make it there before another group claimed it. Mammoth and Gizmo were still trying to decide what they wanted, making it take even longer with their arguments over which flavour of pudding was superior.

"Dammit, forgot my silverware." Jinx said, starting to get up before Raven put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get it." She volunteered, moving back toward the other end of the room.

Jinx, meanwhile, kept watch dutifully over the other seats at the table, making sure no one else sat down there. So distracted was she with her task that she almost didn't hear the words yelled across the room.

"Hey Pinky, think fast." Apparently, Jinx didn't think fast enough as she didn't register the milk carton being thrown her way until she had no way of avoiding it. She threw her arms up as a shield, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

She opened her eyes to find a wall of darkness had been erected, intercepting the dairy-filled projectile and preventing her humiliation. A familiar six-eyed visage adorned the shadowy surface; its gaze narrowed on the now dead silent crowd of students, searching for something.

The milk carton detached itself, held aloft by dark energy. Black quickly changed to red, and at the same time, an identical glow spread over a boy several tables over, with hair that appeared to be made of pure flame, and he looked himself over in confusion.

The carton rocketed back to where it had come from at a much greater velocity, the impact sending the unfortunate student through a stone pillar and straight into a wall.

Raven's energy disappeared, and the demon herself materialized floating above the boy's miraculously still conscious form, shadows writhing about the bottom of her cloak. She reached down and grabbed him by his hair to pull him closer, heedless of the fire that tried in vain to burn her.

"You made a mistake today." Raven calmly told the quivering student. "Pray I do not find out, should you make another." She released her grip, letting him go as he promptly fainted, and she returned to Jinx's side as the cafeteria buzz slowly returned to normal.

"Impressive." Jinx commended. "You really made that upperclassman your bitch."

"I merely taught a fatuous insect to respect his betters." Raven said casually as Mammoth and Gizmo finally joined the two.

"Well if that's you just messin' around, I can't wait to see you get serious during the demo later." Jinx was excited; she was going to show the rest of these kids why it was a bad idea to mess with her and her team, provided Raven hadn't already done the job with her little display.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Alright, so I'm at least _satisfied_ with this chapter, but I feel I could have done better. **

**Anyway, review time. Imouto's mad house: you were right about her embracing her emotions, but yeah, she's still pretty young and doesn't exactly understand all of them, seeing as she didn't have the emotional control training she'd have gotten from Azarath, and Trigon isn't exactly an emotional role model, either. As for the language thing, that gets further explanation in this chapter.**

**For everyone else talking about future character appearances: don't worry, Blood, the Titans, and even Raven's family will all show up, though it might be a while as we haven't even gotten near the start of the show, yet.**

III

"Speaking of the demo," Mammoth said around his mouthful of food, "how're you gonna work her in?"

"Mam's got a point." Gizmo agreed. "Chick's gonna change the whole team dynamic we got goin'. You better have _some_ kinda plan to incorporate her, or we're all gonna look like a bunch'a snot-brained amateurs out there."

"You guys, relax." Jinx eased. "We're only being tested to see that we _can_ work as a team. We don't necessarily have to bring our a-game just yet. But since you brought it up, I'll go ahead and hash it out now. Raven, you and Giz'll take air support, as well as givin' us shields when we need 'em. Mammoth, you're on front lines; I'll take care of flanks and stragglers. Oh, and Giz, one more thing."

"What?"

"Work on your swearing; that shit you come up with sounds like it was written by a nine-year-old."

"I'm eleven!" He exclaimed, drawing attention to himself; though it didn't last long as no one wanted to be caught staring in their direction and risk the ire of the cloaked member of their team.

"Well fourteen ain't much older, but at least I can cuss like an adult. Hell, Raven's our age and she talks like goddamn Shakespeare. Actually, now that I think about it, how old are you, Rae?"

"Fourteen as well. And, I understand what you were trying to say, but William Shakespeare speaks with a level of vulgarity to rival even the most depraved succubi in Hell." Raven took a bite of her food, and found it to be at least mildly satisfying, though she preferred beef to pork. She ignored the students around her who were simultaneously stealing disturbed glances at her and trying, poorly, to hide that fact.

"You say that like you've met him." Jinx noted.

"He sold his soul for fame." Raven explained, garnering a few surprised faces while she finished her meal.

"Called it." Gizmo smirked.

"Hey, wait a minute. Am I goin' to Hell for signing a contract with you?" Jinx asked, fear and accusation driving her voice up an octave.

"Most likely." Raven answered nonchalantly. "But that won't be much of a problem; I can have you, all three of you, in fact, excused from eternal damnation."

"Just like that, huh?" It sounded too convenient to Jinx.

"Essentially, though you'd still be stuck there forever."

"Better than torture." Mammoth said.

"Alright, enough'a the existential crap!" Gizmo interjected, looking at his watch. "It's about time to get movin', anyhow." Indeed, lunchtime was ending as all but one student started filing out of the cafeteria. A boy stood over the would-be bully from before, his own icy hair contrasting greatly with that of the unconscious student's as he scooped him up in his arms, carrying him out the doors that would take them to the infirmary.

* * *

Despite it being routine for every new arrival, the trials were always something the students of HIVE looked forward to. Whether they were there to gauge the competition or just break up the monotony of their day, it was an eagerly anticipated event. Added to the fact that word had spread like wildfire about the cafeteria incident, along with some embellished rumours centered around the mysterious "Princess of Darkness" as they'd taken to calling Raven, and it had nearly everyone present on the edge of their seats for the "show".

"Alright guys," Jinx said, getting into "Leader Mode" as they waited for their cue to begin, "as long as we stick to the plan, we'll come outta this with an easy pass. Remember, we don't need to show off just yet." Raven nodded, Gizmo grunted his acceptance, and Mammoth gave a thumbs up.

"What do you think's taking so long?" Mammoth wondered aloud.

"Probably making last minute changes." Jinx reasoned. "I'm guessing they try to set these things up pretty early, and adding an extra team member at the last minute likely calls for some adjustments." At least, that's what she figured, logically.

It sounded that way to her teammates, too; but it quickly became a moot point when the wall ahead of them split open, allowing the fluorescent lights of the gym to spill into the semi-darkened hallway they stood in, which seemed a tad overdramatic to Raven, given that the situation as she understood it was merely an assessment of their ability to function as a unit.

_'__Though I suppose accusing others of theatrics makes me something of a hypocrite. Perhaps I should tone it down a bit…'_

"Okay, team seven dash thirteen, step forward." One of HIVE's physical trainers was waiting for Jinx's team, clipboard in hand, as they entered the stadium sized gym. "Alright, before you begin, are all of you aware of the risk of personal injury involved in this exercise?" Seeing four nods of affirmation, he continued in his gruff voice. "This will be a timed trial, designed to test your team's combat efficiency, adaptability, and harmony as a squad. Your completion time and success rate for overcoming individual obstacles will determine your overall score and your class placement, understood?"

"Yes." Jinx answered.

The trainer nodded. "Your goal is simple: destroy or otherwise incapacitate all enemy defenses and get to the other end of the building. You begin when the buzzer sounds." He walked off then, going to take his place in the staff seating area. The team approached the starting line, waiting with intense anticipation to equal that of the audience. A pregnant pause, likely for dramatic effect, and they were off.

Mammoth quickly plowed ahead, Jinx just a short distance behind, while Raven followed Gizmo's lead into the air.

Gizmo was able to take care of most of the aerial attacks as the team made steady progress toward the finish line. Raven thought it best to go for the one's he missed, allowing her to keep an eye on her other teammates as well in order to watch their backs when they couldn't.

Jinx seemed to have more close calls than the others, though Mammoth might have simply been too durable to notice. Raven herself had been grazed a few times by enemy fire, and she could feel her temper rising. By the time they had started the last leg of the exercise, she was more than ready to thoroughly atomize the next thing that got in her way.

She got her chance when Jinx and Mammoth were both caught by meta-strength bolas, both struggling to work their way out. The colossal robotic enemy that had thrown the weapon would be on them soon, and Gizmo was busy fighting off drones. That suited Raven just fine, though; she was out for blood now, even if it would be artificial.

Tapping into her inner rage, powerful blasts of hellfire red energy exploded outward from Raven's eyes, easily punching multiple holes through the unfortunate automaton, but she wasn't done yet. She shot forth like a missile, impacting the robotic soldier and separating its top half from its legs. It attempted to push itself up with its arms, but Raven already had a grip on its shoulders. Opening her mouth much wider than a human would ever be capable of, and displaying her pearly daggers with an inhuman growl, she bit down on the robot's "skull" and dislodged it from the rest of its body, putting it out of its pseudo-misery.

Raven then floated over to her downed teammates just as Mammoth succeeded in ripping the binds off his ankles, while Jinx was still working on hers. Raven ended her struggle by dragging a single clawed finger down the cords and severing them.

"We should get moving." She urged them. Mammoth looked at her uneasily while Jinx appeared awestruck. Their leader shook her head to regain her focus, giving a single nod as she and Mammoth sprinted to the finish. Gizmo had gotten rid of his own enemies in the meantime, and he and Raven flew to catch up with the other two.

The four of them reached the end simultaneously, where Jinx slammed her palm down on the red button waiting on a pedestal to officially declare the test completed.

Their completion time, displayed on two oversized screens on either side of the arena, showed that it had taken them exactly thirteen minutes to get to where they now stood.

"So, is that good or bad?" Mammoth wondered, none of them having any sort of reference for what would be considered a "good" time. Then a list of ten teams and their respective times appeared on screen, indicating the best scoring squads in the school. Their team slid into fourth place, beating out the previous holders by less than ten seconds.

The crowd erupted in cheers. They all stood proudly, Mammoth had a hand on either girl's shoulder, while Gizmo sat on Mammoth's own. Basking in the fleeting moment of adoration, it was ruined prematurely by Raven.

"Who's that at the top?" Her question, while seemingly harmless by itself, soured the moods of her teammates when they recognized who had beat them for first place.

"It's that milk carton douche from lunch!" Jinx seethed. "And they did it in just four minutes? Who the hell are these guys?"

"It's gotta be his brother." Gizmo said, indicating the other boy in the picture. "Probably twins, how similar they look."

"Gods, there's another one." Jinx lamented.

"Well, if he's anything remotely similar to his sibling, I can educate him just as easily on the subject of fear." Raven offered.

"What's the matter? Didn't get your kicks tearin' that bot a new one?" Gizmo teased her.

"Destroying that machine was sufficient enough in soothing my admittedly short temper." Raven insisted. "But instilling fear in your enemies before they act has worked quite well in my experience."

"No." Jinx shook her head. "We're not gonna be the instigators here and let them play victim. If they try some shit again, then by all means, scar 'em for life, but until then, I'm fine pretending they don't exist."

"If you say so." Raven didn't sound happy about it, but going against what Jinx said on the matter would only upset her, and the thought of Jinx being upset didn't sit well with her. _'But why does her emotional state matter to me? It's not as if she'd be able to physically harm me if I do something displeasing…'_

"Way to go, you guys!" The voice of their temporary guide halted her internal monologue. "That was pretty impressive out there, if I do say so myself." Most of the students had filed out, returning to their regularly scheduled classes.

"Thanks." Jinx said, putting on a smile to hide her previous irritation. "So, what do we have left today?"

"Let's see… ah; all we have left to do today is meeting with your instructors, now that they've figured out where to place you, and getting your pictures taken, but first, I'll show you where the locker rooms are so you all can freshen up a bit."

* * *

"Okay, first up is Applied Chemistry with Mr. Cell; where you'll learn to utilize everything from household cleaning supplies to super-acids in a diverse range of tasks that will help you on future assignments." Melanie hit an illuminated button on the wall, and a heavy looking door much different from the others in this stretch of the halls opened, eschewing the standard _whooshing_ sound in favour of a motor and the gears it powered.

"Ah, Miss Fields, you're just in time." The chemistry teacher was a man in his late twenties, wearing the lab coat and goggles usually assumed of someone in his position. The goggles currently rested on his forehead, and the sleeves of his coat were rolled up past the elbow, showing well-muscled, dark skinned arms covered in a motley assortment of scars and burn marks. "I was just about to begin the lesson on soap bombs."

"You're teaching them how to make bathtub accessories?" Jinx questioned.

"You're thinking of bath bombs." He corrected. "What I'm referring to are actual explosives made from soap. You make 'em correctly, and they'll pass right through airport security."

"Cool." Gizmo grinned.

"Sorry, Steven, I'd love to stay and watch you dismember yourself, but I'm afraid I can only stay long enough to introduce your newest students. This is Jinx, Gizmo, Mammoth, and Raven." Melanie waved a hand to the four of them in turn, each offering a nod or a wave to their soon-to-be teacher.

"Well then, I look forward to seeing all of you in my class." He smiled widely, accentuating the lines around his eyes.

"Alright, next class is… Weapons Handling. That should be pretty self-explanatory." Gizmo was the most excited of the group at hearing this, grinning and rubbing his palms together.

"This place is gonna be fun."

"Try not to have _too_ much fun." Jinx warned him. "You remember the incident last spring? When you thought it would be a good idea to rig a hyper-thermic magnetron up to a prototype railgun, and then juice the thing up with the technological equivalent of steroids?"

"That was a simple calculation error." Gizmo defended. "It would'a worked if you'd'a let me correct it."

"'Simple calculation error' my ass. You blew up half the building!"

"Not like anyone died." Gizmo muttered, giving up the argument before it could escalate further.

"Mmhm, well, filing that away for later, we're here." Melanie announced. This time, the door looked much lighter-duty, but with thick padding on the frame. A sign was posted nearby, telling anyone who entered to grab a pair of earplugs before proceeding. Melanie handed a set to each of her four charges before letting them go in.

Gizmo was like a kid in a candy store when they entered the "classroom" (see, gun range). Jinx was pretty taken aback herself at all the high-tech weapons and other gadgets apparently at their disposal, and all the stations designated to different weapons-related activities made it feel like some kind of wartime arts and crafts center.

They found the instructor helping a student at one of the stations, explaining the mechanisms of the handgun between them.

"Mr. Flag." Melanie shouted to be heard over the hail of gunfire being produced several dozen yards away. "Could I borrow you for a moment?"

"Sure thing." He nodded to the student he'd been talking to, receiving a salute in return as the student stepped away. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm here with the newest students." She once again introduced Jinx and her team.

The teacher eyed each of them, gauging for something. "Have any of you ever operated a firearm before?" Only Gizmo raised his hand. "Are you the team's weapons expert, then?"

"I'm an expert with _any _tech." Gizmo assured him with a smirk.

"Good, every team needs one, and I'll expect you to help keep their weapons skills sharp; they start falling behind, I'm holding you responsible."

"What?! Why me?"

"Shared knowledge is useful knowledge, and useful knowledge keeps you alive. Think of it like a pot on the stove; if the heat don't spread evenly, it ruins the food. The same applies to your team." Gizmo crossed his arms and glared, but didn't attempt to refute him.

"Glad you see it my way." He ignored Gizmo's irate expression. "If that'll be all, Ms. Fields, I need to get back to assisting that young man over there." He tilted his head vaguely in the direction of the student from before, who was currently trying to look like he hadn't been staring at them.

"We'll get out of your hair, then." Melanie said, leading her group on to their next introduction.

* * *

"Okay, we've seen chemistry, weapons, engineering, finance, and survival skills, and combat practice is a weekly affair held in the gym, so we don't need to go back there. Next we have… oh, never mind, that's all of them; on to the studio, then." Making a few checks on her clipboard, Melanie seemingly deliberated before picking a direction to walk.

"Studio?" Jinx inquired. "You guys have an entire studio just for student pictures?"

Melanie shook her head. "Not just ID photos; we also need to be able to make dark web advertisements, highlights, footage of students to show clients, and then that requires editing as well; there's a lot that goes into this stuff."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Jinx agreed. "Ya know it's a lot more impressive here than I thought it would be, but that might just be 'cuz Junior HIVE was nowhere near the level of this place."

"You're not the first one to say so." Melanie noted. "I've been telling the execs for a while now to give the Juniors more funding, but well, I'm basically a glorified secretary here, and my opinion holds about as much sway as that implies."

Jinx scoffed. "Typical. I'm surprised they didn't fire you just for _having_ an opinion."

"Oh, they would never do that." Melanie gave a short chuckle. "This place would burn to the ground in a week without me, and they know it; not many people are qualified for a position like this involving this many metahuman teenagers, and even fewer are actually willing."

"Guess that's good job security." Jinx said. "Still sucks that they treat you like a peon when you're the one keeping this place goin', though."

Melanie laughed again. "Trust me, it could be a whole lot worse; as it is, they'll give me pretty much whatever I ask for under the pretense of job necessity." She pulled a keycard out of her pocket, unlocking the door they'd stopped at.

The photography studio was pretty much exactly as Jinx expected; half the room was dedicated to a photoshoot area, green screen, slightly uncomfortable looking stool, and expensive camera included. Dominating the other side of the space were three rows of computers, most likely for editorial purposes. Aside from the two work spaces, there wasn't much else of note.

"Okay, who wants to go first?" Melanie asked, making adjustments to the camera.

"I'll do it." Jinx volunteered, taking a seat on the stool. She went through a series of different poses and faces, which Raven found amusing, and it showed. Jinx, in turn, was both amused and just a bit prideful at being the reason for Raven's smile.

"I think just a smile will do, Jinx." Melanie told her, a small smile of her own present. Jinx complied, grinning and showing off her fangs. While she didn't have anything like Raven, where every one of her sixty-four teeth were lethal weapons, all of her canines were definitively longer and pointier than that of a normal human.

"Wanna go next, Rae?" Jinx asked, moving from her seat after the camera flashed.

"Okay." Raven hopped onto the stool, scowling with just a hint of disdain as her boots didn't quite reach the floor. Jinx and the boys were stifling laughter in the background.

"You'll wanna take your hood off for this." Melanie suggested. "I need to get a good picture of you, so I'm going to need to see your face."

"Very well." Raven did as she was asked, exposing her face and long white hair for the camera. Melanie had no discernible reaction to her appearance, once again piquing Raven's interest.

Mammoth went after Raven, first giving the seat a stress test by pressing down on it to make sure it would hold him. Gizmo went last, refusing to smile on the grounds that it wasn't how he looked a majority of the time.

After taking the last photo, Melanie popped the memory card out of the camera and inserted it into one of the computers. Five minutes and many audible keyboard clicks later, four HIVE student ID's were printed off, and Melanie passed them out.

"Welcome to HIVE. Officially." Melanie said. "This is the end of your group tour; I just need to show Raven to her English tutor. You guys can come with us if you want, but as of right now, the school day's over, and you have until ten o'clock to do as you see fit. Within reason, of course." She amended quickly, thinking back to Gizmo's apparent propensity for experimental weaponry.

"You wanna go mess with the weightlifters?" Gizmo asked Mammoth on their way out of the studio.

"Hah, definitely."

"I can tell those two are really going to make me earn my paycheck." Melanie sighed. "Well, we should get there before he leaves. Ready, Raven?"

"I'm gonna go with you guys." Jinx said. "Let the boys be someone else's problem for once."

* * *

"Something wrong?" Melanie asked the girls, who were hesitating to enter the classroom they had come to.

"Something doesn't feel right." Raven said ominously, Jinx nodding along.

"Yeah, I feel it, too." She narrowed her eyes. "Who is this guy, exactly?"

"You can call me Mr. Jacobs." The man had evidently been closer to the open doorway than they had thought. "Are you two my new students?" Mr. Jacobs was a fairly tall, extremely pale man, being close to Mammoth's height. He looked deceptively athletic under his baggy clothes, as well.

"Just Raven." Jinx pointed to her friend. "I did my time in English already, and I'd rather not have to go through it again."

"Yes…" He said, thinly veiling his meager annoyance. "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Raven. I hear you've a somewhat unorthodox language experience?"

Raven nodded. "My father dictated my education as a child. Verbal English was a necessity to communicate with his… associates, but he believes the written form to be an impure, fallacious mess of a lexicon with no business being anywhere near magic."

"Got that right." Jinx agreed.

"Well, personal opinions of the language aside, I look forward to having you in class either way." He held out his hand for Raven to shake, and she stopped just short of taking it.

"What is that you have there on your wrist?" She asked him.

"Oh, this?" He rolled his sleeve back, showing a silver chain with a small wooden cross wrapped around his wrist. The cross itself had a small amount of metal embedded within the wood. "It's a holy artifact. The wood came from the actual cross used to crucify Christ, and the metal inside, as well as the chain, is one hundred percent pure silver. It wards off possession and dark magic."

"As I am well aware." Raven deadpanned. "I also noticed the sword. Is that the original?"

"Joyeuse." He confirmed. "It's no Excalibur, but it certainly does the job. Are these going to be a problem for you?"

"So long as you don't touch me, everything will be fine." Raven insisted. "Is teaching a demon going to be a problem for _you_?"

"Not at all." He stated calmly, trying to convey he meant no harm. "Those are merely a precaution against the more hostile type."

"Alright." Raven accepted. "If you don't try to kill me, I suppose I can extend the same kindness."

"I think we're going to get along just fine." He laughed.

* * *

"Whaddya think, Raven; you think pink and purple would look good in here?" Jinx was holding her arms out straight up, making a frame with her hands, one eye closed as she lay on her bed.

"The aesthetics sound pleasing enough." Raven offered. "Though if you do choose that particular color scheme, I'd hope you keep pink to a minimum of highlights or accents, seeing as I live here, too."

"Fair point." Jinx said. "It's gonna have to wait until I can actually get some paint, anyway."

"And the school is alright with you redecorating at your leisure?" Raven questioned dubiously.

"Don't know." Jinx admitted shamelessly. "Guess we'll find out for sure if they ever see it." Raven didn't laugh, rather exhaled through her nose once in response.

"You should get to sleep."

"Yeah, alright, g'night, _mom."_ Jinx said playfully, though she did listen as she closed her eyes and turned on her side.

"Good night, Jinx."

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, as I said, I think it could be improved, but that might just be my writer's perfectionism talking. So, how am I doing with Mammoth and Gizmo? I'm trying to make sure they get a decent amount of the spotlight without focusing too much on them. (This _is_ a RaeJinx story).**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: And we're back! I know this took quite a bit longer than previous chapters, and the explanations for that are at the bottom. Anywho, this is where the story really begins, as the first three chapters act as something of an intro, getting everyone into their places so we can get on with the plot. Enjoy!**

IV

"What's the matter with you?" Jinx asked Raven as soon as she'd joined the rest of their group at the lunch table they'd quickly claimed as their own. "You look like someone stole your favorite torture device." The girl in question wore an expression of severe irritation today in place of her usual look of boredom.

"Do you recall that boy who threw the milk carton at you?" Raven stabbed her food a few times, looking very much like she was imagining it as someone specific as she watched the blood spill out onto her tray.

Jinx snorted. "Hard to forget after the way you made him eat the wall. He botherin' you or somethin'?"

"No, though I'm sure I'd rather be antagonized than… this." She reached into the folds of her cloak, pulling out a small, semi-transparent object that glistened even in the fluorescent lights overhead. "His brother gave me this after professing some sort of misguided affection for me."

"Is that an ice rose?" Jinx examined the artificial flower closely. "We've been here barely a month, and how many guys have the hots for you now?"

"Too many." Raven said. "One of them has even attempted to use his powers to look through my clothing, so I plucked out his eye." She crushed the flower between her thumb and index finger, sending a small spray of ice across the table.

"Ugh, fucking creeps." Jinx scoffed. "Mike, what do you got on these top scoring twats."

"Huh? Wha…?" Gizmo sat bolt upright; his impromptu nap interrupted at the sound of his name.

"I said, what did you find out about the guys who scored first in their entrance exams?" Jinx sighed irritably.

"Right, yeah." Gizmo opened his laptop with a yawn, pulling up a page and turning the device to show the others. "James and Erik Sherwood, AKA Cryo and Pyro, respectively. Fifteen years old, discovered their meta-genes at an early age, and trained with some US paramilitary group that doesn't officially exist; and I got no name on that. Everything else is basic info; normal home life for the most part, no dirty secrets they're tryin' to hide, far as I can tell."

"So, one likes you, and one hates you, and other than that, we've got nothin' on 'em." Jinx looked off to the side in contemplation. "I should be able to think of a way to use that."

"Uh, use it for what?" Mammoth interjected, having been looking for a way into the conversation. "I thought we were gonna let it be?"

"We still are, for now." Jinx explained. "But one of 'em's already tried some shady shit, and I want to be prepared the next time it happens. By the way, what did you tell… James is Cryo, right? Yeah, what'd you tell Cryo when he told ya how he felt?"

"I informed him I had no interest in forming a relationship with him, and then I mentioned that his brother was a quivering pustule on the face of society. He laughed, then handed me that rose, saying he 'wasn't going to give up that easily'."

"Gotta love that perseverance." Jinx intoned sarcastically. "Well, we can deal with him later; how's English class going?"

"I'm inclined to agree with my father, for once." Raven huffed. "This language is horrendous; it's like they threw dice to decide the grammatical rules."

"Sounds about right." Jinx agreed. "What about Mr. Jacobs; he try any weird demon hunter shit?"

"Nothing overt, so far." Raven said. "He seems to be content with observing me for the moment, when not trying to explain one of the most needlessly overcomplicated languages ever devised." Her head twitched slightly. "And apparently, he's not the only one fond of that particular activity." Jinx immediately started looking around the room, searching for whoever Raven was implying.

"Oh, it's them." Jinx groused. "Don't they have anything better to do?" The twins shifted their attentions to Jinx when they caught sight of her glare. Pyro looked down at his food, trying to appear casual, while Cryo merely grinned at her, doing his best to give off an air of suave charm, and surprisingly not failing entirely. _'So much for dealing with it later…'_

Jinx could see they were trying to subtly discuss something, but even if she could read lips, they were too far away to do so. Whatever it was, Pyro didn't like it. Not wanting to actually make the trip over there, she settled for narrowing her eyes to send a non-verbal message, turning back around to return to her meal when she was sure they'd understood her.

But it seemed something got lost in translation, as not five seconds later, two sets of footsteps approached their table, followed by the sound of a throat clearing.

"Sorry to bother you." Cryo started in, not faltering in the slightest under the harsh looks he received. "I believe my brother has something he'd like to say…" He clapped Pyro on his shoulder rather forcefully at the word 'brother', producing a small puff of steam at the contact.

"I'm… sorry." Pyro was sweating, likely with nervousness, and he refused to meet Jinx's eyes. "Throwing that milk at you was childish and a dick move, and I hope that we can all move past this like mature young adults." He avoided eye contact like the plague as he waited for her to respond.

Jinx couldn't help herself; the way he spoke was so obviously scripted and forced, she busted out laughing.

After a solid three minutes, she calmed down enough to form a response.

"Did, did you tell him to say all that?" She looked to Cryo, wiping a tear away.

"I sincerely hope this is not the whole of your ploy to win me over." Raven said without looking at them.

"Why, I wouldn't dream of insulting you with something so simple." Cryo's voice had just the barest hint of a drawl not shared with his twin, and Jinx figured it was something he played up for girls. "I only figured my brother owed your friend here an apology, and he was just too scared of you to follow through."

"Shut up, dude; you didn't see what I saw." Pyro punched his brother in the arm. "Something ain't right with her."

"I'm still here, you know?" Raven said, turning her head just a bit farther than what should have been feasible to glare at the two intruders to their lunch. Erik blanched, while James kept his smile up all the same.

"See what I mean? That shit ain't natural." Pyro motioned to Raven with both hands. "Ya know what, screw this, I'm going back to see if I still have an appetite."

"I apologize for my brother's rudeness." Cryo said as they watched Pyro walk back to his seat. "No one ever really explained the concept of a social filter to him."

"So I've gathered." Raven said, returning to her own meal. "If that's all you needed, I would welcome the loss of your company; the stink of arrogance is ruining my own palate."

"Just one other thing." James smoothed back his light blue hair. "If you ever decide you want a change'a scenery, there's always a spot open for you on our team… and on my arm."

"I think I'll pass."

"And I think it's time for you to leave." Mammoth chimed in, crossing his powerful arms over his broad chest in a show of intimidation. Cryo's smile dropped a bit then as he raised an eyebrow, looking between each member of Jinx's team.

"That's alright, I can see when I'm not wanted." He raised his hands in the gesture of surrender, placing his right foot behind him. "But just think about what I said if you don't want to hold yourself back anymore."

"Well he was… slimy." Jinx said after he'd returned to his sibling.

"Gotta hand it to him, though, guy's got balls." Gizmo said. "I'm surprised you didn't decapitate him or somethin'."

"I'm not going to repay affection with malice." Raven argued. "Though that will change at the slightest show of force in his efforts."

* * *

"Aaannd… Done!" Jinx exclaimed, grabbing the attention of the resident demon. In the amount of time they'd been there, Jinx had managed, with the help of her teleporting roommate, to fully furnish their room. As of right now, she had officially finished painting.

Everything was done, as promised, in varying shades of pink and purple.

"Not bad." Raven dragged her attention away from the English work she'd been trying to complete to take in Jinx's handiwork. "I hadn't thought you were any sort of artist."

Jinx shook her head, wiping sweat from her hairline. "Nah, this ain't art; you should see what I can do with actual supplies."

"I think I'd like that." Raven's words brought a wide smile to Jinx's lips, but before she could offer a reply, a knock was heard at the door. Standing on the other side of the entrance was their tour guide. "Hello, Ms. Fields."

"Hello, Raven. May I come in?"

"I don't see why not." Raven floated aside to let Melanie in, closing the door with her powers as they came back over to Jinx. For her part, Melanie appeared unfazed by both the heady smell of paint and Jinx's attire of paint-splattered overalls.

"What can we do ya' for?" Jinx asked, taking up the same nonchalant attitude as their guest.

"Well, I know you guys haven't been here for very long, but based on the progress you and your team have already made, along with your natural skills, the Headmistress and I both believe a proper field test is in order." Melanie handed Jinx a folder.

"You mean we're getting a mission already?" Jinx asked incredulously, skimming over the contents of their contract.

"Sort of." Melanie said. "It's pretty beginner stuff; basic retrieval work. A company here in Jump had two of their vehicles stolen a few nights ago, and have taken out a contract with the HIVE to get them back. Of course, if you don't feel ready for this, we can always put it off for now."

"No, no; we can handle this easy." Jinx affirmed.

"Great; the rest of the details are in there, just let me know when you're ready to leave." Melanie said, making her exit from the room.

"Whoa…"

"Something wrong?" Raven asked.

"Not really wrong, per se." Jinx said. "More like weird. The cars that were stolen belonged to Wayne Enterprises."

"I'm afraid you'll have to elaborate." Raven prompted.

"Well, it's just that, why would a multi-billion-dollar organization like that want to hire _mercenaries_, especially ones who haven't even been in the game for very long, just to get back a couple of company cars? They make enough money every day to recover what they lost with these thefts."

"It does sound… odd, when you put it that way." Raven noted. "I assume we'll still be going, despite the suspicious circumstances?"

"Oh hell yeah." Jinx said. "Even if it turns out this is some kind of ridiculous convoluted trap, I doubt we'll have any real problems taking care of it."

"A fair assumption." Raven agreed. "Though I should warn you against overestimating my abilities. I know I might have given a somewhat deity-esque impression, but both Robin and Pyro were wholly unprepared to face down a demon, which would obviously lend itself to my advantage. Make no mistake, I am considered one of the more powerful beings in the underworld, but I am far from unkillable."

"I guess." Jinx conceded. "But hey, even if you're not invincible on your own, I think we can get pretty close as a team."

"For your sake, I hope you're right."

"Of course I'm right." Jinx assured her. "Now let's go tell the boys."

"I don't like it." Gizmo said as soon as he'd read the file for their mission. "Somethin's fishy about all this."

"I had the same thoughts." Jinx admitted. "But I'm not about to turn down our first contract just because it seems suspicious; we need to show 'em that we're a capable team who aren't afraid to take up potentially dangerous missions."

"Works for me." Mammoth said.

"Your pride is gonna be the death of me…" Gizmo complained, which Raven evidently found amusing, as she sniggered at him.

* * *

"Alright, can I trust you guys with this?" Jinx asked sternly, looking between Mammoth and Gizmo in accusation. "I don't think I need to remind you what happened on our last job."

"I already told you that was because of extenuating circumstances!" Gizmo argued.

"I'm gonna show you 'extenuating' if you guys mess this up." Jinx threatened him.

"That doesn't even make any sense." Gizmo countered.

"Shouldn't we get going?" Raven interrupted, having no desire to watch them fight amongst themselves when they had more important matters to attend to.

"She's right." Jinx agreed. "But just to be sure, tell me what you're supposed to do."

"We go to the place, we sneak in, we steal the thing, and we meet back here in front of this park." Gizmo recited.

"Good enough." Jinx ceded. "You ready, Rae?" Raven nodded once, wrapping the two of them in shadow and disappearing an instant later.

"Hey, how come we have to walk?!" Gizmo exclaimed.

"You really wanna go through that again?" Mammoth questioned the shorter boy. Gizmo didn't answer, just stalked off toward their destination, grumbling all the while.

* * *

"Whew, you were right about that getting easier." Jinx said, stumbling a few times before catching her footing.

"Though it does seem you're not fully acclimated to it just yet." Raven noted.

"Well, we'll just have to do it more often." Jinx said, blushing as soon as the words left her mouth. "Uuuhhh… I mean, um, teleporting, of course… just forget I said anything." She didn't miss the smirk Raven now bore, but chose not to comment, instead refocusing on their mission while trying to force her face to go back to its usual colourless state.

"Well this mission just gets more suspicious by the moment." Raven commented.

"Yeah, this doesn't exactly look like the kind of place you'd stash a high-end stolen ride." Jinx agreed. They found themselves in the run-down area on the outskirts of Jump; the sort of place where one might expect to see things like drug deals, gang violence, and the like.

"Do we have a more specific search area?" Raven asked. "From what I know of these types of places, and those who inhabit them, we will no doubt appear as outsiders."

"That just means they'll know who their messin' with." Jinx justified. "But anyway, we're lookin' for a warehouse that only looks old on the outside."

"That would describe most of them around here." Raven stated dryly.

"Door to door it is, then." Jinx concluded.

* * *

It was five warehouses, three homeless men, and one creepy, staring child later that Raven and Jinx finally found what they were looking for, at least according to Jinx.

"We haven't even opened the door yet." Raven said. "How can you be sure this is it?"

"A few things." Jinx explained. "See that symbol just above the door? That's the logo of the gang that's supposed to have stolen the cars. And the door itself has way too many security features, not to mention that unlike most of the other places we checked, none of the windows are broken here."

"You're cleverer than you lead people to believe." Raven said.

"Well, you're not wrong, but this stuff was pretty obvious." Jinx asserted. At Raven's inquisitive look, she continued. "You're right, I do let people think I'm impulsive, a little hyperactive, and somewhat childish, but that's exactly the point; underestimation is a witch's best friend in a fight. Now, how's your stealth skills?"

"Exemplary." Raven answered, phasing both herself and Jinx through the door without so much as a hint of detection.

After a short stint down a hallway and past a second, less heavily fortified door, they came to a stop on a catwalk overlooking several dozen dangerous looking men and women, all of which were engaged in some sort of gang-related activity. There were people assembling and disassembling weapons, people working on what looked to be experimental tech, and a group of them gathered in a circle in a lounge of sorts, passing a small white cylindrical object around, each of them taking turns inhaling on it.

"What is that smell?" Raven asked in a whisper.

"What, you never smelled weed smoke before?" Jinx asked sarcastically.

"If you'll recall, there are many things I've yet to encounter in this world." Raven pointed out. "Many rituals call for burning some kind of plant, but they've never had this particular aroma. But besides that, I'm fairly certain that's not magic they're doing in the first place."

"So, you were literally born in Hell, but you don't know what drugs are?" Jinx was incredulous. "Okay, that's a _long_ discussion best saved for a controlled environment; for now, we need to find the car, and I don't see it anywhere in here."

"Do you still want to go with the stealthy approach?" Raven asked. "If not, I'm certain we could make short work of these people."

"I don't doubt it." Jinx agreed. "But this isn't the whole gang, and I'm not fond of the idea of making enemies out of the rest of 'em. I don't suppose you could turn us invisible?"

"Not quite." Raven answered. "There is something I can do, though." She slung part of her cloak over Jinx's shoulders, and though the magic wasn't visible, Jinx could feel its effects.

"What was that?"

"I've melded us with the shadows." Raven explained. "So long as we stay quiet and keep to the edges of the room, we'll be effectively unnoticeable."

"Cool." Jinx said. "Let's go." They moved along swiftly but quietly, Jinx's slight frame aiding her silence, while Raven made no footsteps at all.

The stairs were obviously a no-go, and the two opted to simply float down noiselessly on the opposite end of the room. There were a few close calls as they moved along the wall when one of the gang members would walk near them, look around suspiciously a few times, then proceed to continue on to wherever they'd been planning to go.

After ten anxiety inducing minutes of methodical procession, Jinx had Raven tentatively phase them through a door marked as being off limits. They hadn't seen anyone enter this room the entire time they'd been in the building, and it was just as devoid of life as expected.

And just as Jinx had been hoping, there was their goal sitting prominently in the center of the private garage.

"Okay, that is definitely not a regular company car." Jinx observed. The vehicle before them was definitely their target, if the large, stylized W was anything to go by, but it was absolutely not something just any corporate underling would be handed the keys to.

"Is there something special about this particular machine?" Raven asked.

"I'm so glad you asked." A new voice sounded off behind them in the dimly lit room. Jinx and Raven turned to find three men, all brandishing some type of blunt instrument. "Ya' know, little girls like you really shouldn't be in a place like this."

"I agree." Jinx said. "So, if you don't mind, we'll just take the car and be out of your hair."

"Sorry, but it don't work that way." The man in the center spoke, shifting his weapon onto his shoulder.

"Is this the part where we're supposed to be intimidated?" Raven asked. "I have to wonder, though, how did you manage to sneak up on us?" She was genuinely curious, as it was fairly difficult to elude her senses.

The man reached into his shirt, pulling out a necklace. "A gift from our generous benefactor; grants invisibility to magical detection."

"Yet you willingly give that up instead of attacking while our guard was down?" Raven questioned him.

"Well, I figure if I'm gonna take a bat to a kid's face, I might as well let 'em see it coming. Plus, I'm a sucker for dramatic entrances."

"I don't suppose you could teleport both us and the car out of here?" Jinx asked quietly.

Raven gave a small shake of the head. "I have no way of shielding something like that from the stress of the journey."

"The only journey you're making tonight is to the morgue." The man interrupted before he and his two friends came running at Jinx and Raven.

The 'fight', if one could call it that, lasted barely a minute before all three of them were unconscious. The girls waited a few more seconds to see if reinforcements were coming, and when none did, Raven bent to retrieve the item that had hidden the men from her scope, giving it a few tentative touches to make sure it was harmless.

"Do you recognize it?" Jinx asked.

"No." Raven shook her head. "I'll ask Mr. Jacobs about at some point." She pocketed the item, turning her gaze back to the car. "I assume you know how to drive?"

"Functionally, yes; legally, no." Jinx assured her. "Let's go."

* * *

As soon as the garage door lowered behind them, another person stepped out of the corner of the room, wearing a piece of jewelry identical to the one Raven had just taken. Smoothing a hand through his glacial hair, he walked up to the nearest body on the floor, tapping the man in the head with his shoe. The man opened his eyes slowly, giving a groan of pain and hacking up a few drops of blood.

"So, did you learn anything?" James asked.

"I learned you're a fuckin' masochistic nutcase." He answered sluggishly. "I don't know why you want to bag a walkin' nightmare like her anyway."

"Trust me, my emasculated friend, any beast can be tamed." James eyed the talisman hanging from his neck. "One need only know how."

* * *

When they arrived at the meeting point, they found Mammoth and Gizmo sitting on the hood of the car, eating fast food and generally looking very bored. Jinx hopped out of the car excitedly, while Raven got out more steadily, albeit with disheveled hair that she ran a hand through to move it out of her face.

"How'd it go on your guys' end?" Jinx asked.

"Nobody home, so we basically walked out with it." Mammoth answered. "What about you?"

"Full house." Jinx replied. "But we only had to fight a couple of 'em. Still, pretty weird for our first official mission."

"What about her?" Gizmo jerked a thumb in Raven's direction.

"I don't think she's a fan of my driving." Jinx laughed.

"I'm beginning to empathize with those I teleport for the first time." Raven said. "I am going to learn how to drive at the first opportunity."

"Gonna have to learn how to read for that." Jinx teased her.

"A skill at which I will be proficiently fluent within the next month or two, based on my current rate of progression." Raven promised. "Now, if we could get back to the school, I'd appreciate a hot bath."

"Gotta agree with ya there." Jinx said. "You guys wanna race back?"

"Absolutely not." Raven interrupted before either of the boys could answer, taking a bit of pleasure in their defeated expressions.

"Well you're no fun." Jinx said in mock irritation. "Let's go back at _reasonable _speeds, I guess."

* * *

"We're gettin' paid for this, right?" Gizmo asked as they exited the parking garage after dropping off the cars.

"Duh." Jinx answered. "Just 'cuz we're students doesn't mean we work for peanuts."

"Good, I could use some extra cash." Gizmo grinned.

"I wouldn't get too excited if I were you." Mammoth said. "We're only gonna see about a quarter of the check."

"He's right." Jinx agreed. "Twenty-five percent goes to the school, fifty goes to a locked savings account we can only access after graduating, and the other twenty-five goes into our pockets now. And seeing as this was a novice level assignment, I wouldn't expect too much to begin with."

"Well this sucks." Gizmo crossed his arms, sulking the rest of the way.

"Speaking of getting paid…" Jinx started.

"Hey guys, congratz on your first mission." Melanie greeted them.

"Thanks." Jinx said. "Hey, do you know who we talk to about getting paid?"

"Actually, your funds should autoload into your student accounts, which I have the cards for right here." Melanie handed them each a sliver of plastic. "The mission was for five thousand total, which means you should each have a little over three hundred dollars waiting for you."

"Nice." Jinx looked at the card, turning it over in her fingers. "These things already set up?"

"Enough to use." Melanie said. "But if you want to set a pin, you'll have to call the number on the back."

"Cool, I'll have to take care of that tomorrow." Jinx said. Though the mission itself hadn't been particularly strenuous, she still felt that familiar fatigue that always accompanied the completion of a job, no matter how small. "See you tomorrow guys." She called to Gizmo and Mammoth, who had begun walking to their own rooms.

"See ya'." Both of them called back simultaneously.

"Hey Raven, you mind if I hop in the tub first? My feet are killin' me and you kinda take up most of the hot water."

"Hmm…" Raven made a show of tapping a finger to her chin a few times, then disappeared in a blink, leaving Jinx to stare blankly for several seconds before she realized what happened.

"Oh c'mon, that's not even fair." Jinx called out into the still night air, deciding to hoof it as fast as she was able to hopefully get to her room before Raven actually got into the bathroom.

* * *

**A/N: If you want to know why this was delayed:**

**1\. As I said up top, this is where the first arc gets underway, so this chapter required a bit extra attention**

**2\. There are certain... conditions, let's call them, that are able to kill off my motivation to do anything but stay alive faster than a Star Trek red shirt**

**I should mention that this isn't directed at anyone; I'm not mad or griping, I just want to make sure everyone knows, especially for possible future delays.**

**Oh, one last thing, Mr. Cell, Mr. Jacobs, and Melanie Fields are all OC's, as are James and Erik. Feel free to use any of them, so long as you let me know and credit me at least once.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright! I have returned with more content. Let me start off saying how happy I am with all the feedback I'm getting on this story; it's been nothing but positivity so far.**

**Speaking of which: Imouto's mad house: Yeah, he is kind of a tool, isn't he, lol. Also, you needn't worry yourself, it's nothing to do with the readers; the only thing I can ask for is patience.**

V

"I fail to see the appeal here." Raven cast a disappointed two-eyed glare about their surroundings. Jinx had suggested they spend their Saturday at Jump's central park to relax after their first mission.

Needless to say, Raven wasn't overly thrilled.

"The appeal is that some of us actually _enjoy_ sunlight and being outdoors." Jinx explained. "I know it might be kinda hard to tell, what with, ya' know," she held up her hands, displaying her melanin-deprived complexion, "but I consider myself pretty well in tune with nature."

"That doesn't surprise me." Raven said. "You have a natural affinity for chaos; you practically embody it, and nature is nothing if not chaotic."

"Huh. Ya' know, I never thought of it like that before." Jinx leaned back on the bench she had selected after walking for a little while. Raven was watching Gizmo and Mammoth throwing a football back and forth, and something caught Jinx's eye in the other direction. A group of second graders were just now running onto the grass, having been just let out of school.

Normally, this wouldn't have been a noteworthy observation, but there was one child who stood well out of place. He looked about the same age as the rest, but he was the only one dressed all in black, with shoulder-length hair to match, and he was sitting under a large oak tree that still retained its foliage even as Summer was in the beginning stages of the transition to Autumn.

And even then, she could pass that off as just sort of odd, but he was staring at her with the angriest expression she'd ever seen on a seven-year-old. None of the other kids seemed to notice him, but he definitely noticed Jinx; he looked as if her were trying to stare into her soul.

"Hey Rae." Jinx turned to catch the demoness's attention. "What do you make of that kid over there?"

"…Which one?" Raven looked confused as she continued to gaze in the direction Jinx had indicated.

"The creepy one wearing all black." Jinx clarified. "He's right… oh, he's gone. Well, anyway, there was this kid sitting under that tree there lookin' like he wanted to kill me."

"That does sound concerning." Raven acknowledged. "But realistically, what damage can a child do?"

"He could be a meta." Jinx pointed out. "When I was his age, I collapsed a building without even trying."

"A building that didn't have me protecting it." Raven countered. "Unless he's some divine being in disguise, I doubt you have anything to worry about."

"I guess so." Jinx conceded. "Still, the way he was eyeballin' me was pretty unnerving. I think I'm gonna go for a walk; that whole thing kinda killed the mood for me here."

"Would you like me to accompany you?" Raven asked. "I wouldn't want you to get mugged by a gang of preschoolers."

"Hilarious." Jinx deadpanned. "I think I'll be fine on my own; I'll meet you back at the school."

* * *

Her journey took her to a fairly deserted area of Jump this time of day, and the sky had become overcast. Out of force of habit, Jinx tended to stick to alleys and lesser used pathways when traveling, especially on her own, and today was no exception.

Though Jinx held no fear for petty common criminals or juvenile delinquents of the non-meta variety, something here was making her anxious. She could feel eyes on her, watching from the shadows, but no matter where she looked, she only saw the same grungy atmosphere in every direction.

Her preferred path of conveyance suddenly felt much too oppressive and confined, and Jinx quickly ran out into the open air of the streets. She waited for her breathing to even out again, and decided it was time to head back to HIVE. She'd made it about a hundred feet when something else popped out of an alley that stopped her dead in her tracks.

The largest snake Jinx had ever seen slithered its way onto the street, looking easily big enough to swallow her whole should it get the opportunity, and releasing a hiss so loud and sharp she could feel it under her feet as it set her teeth on edge. She didn't even think, she simply blasted as much energy as she could gather at the monstrosity and high-tailed it in the other direction.

She'd been hoping, with how much power she'd actually employed, that it would either kill the thing or at least cave the road in under it, but that hope was utterly destroyed by the sound of the colossal reptile moving after her. Risking a glance back, Jinx saw the massive snake rapidly gaining on her, while her legs were screaming in protest at the excessive use of her muscles.

Even with the situation being as dire as it was, Jinx still had the presence of mind to notice just how empty everything was. Granted, it was after four on a Saturday in the industrial district, but still, she figured there would at least be _someone_ around who could help her.

At the rate this chase was currently going, Jinx knew it wouldn't be long before it ended in a bad way for her. Figuring it was worth the risk, she bolted down an alley, intending to lose her pursuer amongst the labyrinthine architecture of the city. This too, however, yielded no result, as the snake managed to keep her in its sights the entire time.

In a last-ditch effort, Jinx ran down a dead-end, planning to vault over the back wall as she had done in several previous escapes. As it was wont to, though, she knew her luck had run out when she felt what could only be the snake's tongue wrap around her ankle and yank her back down, slamming her into the pavement. Jinx quickly sat up despite the dull thumping in her skull, and readied her power once again. The snake lifted its head higher, and she saw an opportunity.

When the beast had its head reared back and ready to strike, Jinx struck first. She knew her power wouldn't work in a direct attack, so she went for indirect instead, channeling her hex magic into the surrounding buildings.

The result was immediate; glass and concrete started coming down bit by bit at first, then all at once, distracting the snake from its hunt. As bigger chunks of stone began to pelt its body, it made to turn around in order to escape being crushed, but a wall of solid black obstructed its egress. It was the same solidified darkness currently holding up the wreckage Jinx had caused, and one that she knew very well.

"Took you long enough." Jinx said playfully, though her voice didn't betray just how relieved she was to see Raven.

"I apologize." Raven said. "I was investigating the boy from the park."

"So, did you find him?"

"I did." She slowly floated over to the snake that had shrunken considerably since her arrival and was now attempting to escape through any means it could find. Just when it had found a crevice to squeeze through, Raven grabbed it by the back of its neck, holding it still while it tried to squirm its way to freedom. "Are you quite finished?"

The snake's movements ceased at her question, and it began growing again, this time stopping at a much smaller size than before. It changed shape as well, becoming more humanoid with each passing second as a green glow surrounded it. When it was finished, Raven held a young boy about seven years old, with red skin and four glowing green eyes.

"What are you doing here Eli?" Raven questioned him.

"I could ask you the same thing, Pride." He replied smoothly.

Raven tightened her grip just a bit, just enough for him to feel. "It's _Raven_ while we're up here. Which brings us back to my question: What are you doing here? And while I'm at it, how did you even get here?"

"It might be hard to sneak out when you're Father's _favorite,_ but the rest of us aren't watched as closely as you are." He crossed his arms as he hung there helpless. "Even Simon could get out easier than you."

"That still doesn't explain _why_ you're here." Raven reminded him, not denying his claims of paternal favoritism.

He didn't answer her, instead choosing to glare openly at Jinx, who sat in stunned silence.

"I see." Raven sighed. "Listen, I know you don't like it when I'm not around, but you can't do things like this, and you certainly are not allowed to hurt her." She pointed a finger at Jinx.

"Why not?" Eli asked, genuinely confused. "Why do you care what happens to some pathetic mortal?"

"Watch your tongue when you speak about her." Raven hissed, narrowing her eyes. "Why I'm protecting her is none of your business. The only thing you need to know is that if you try anything like this again, or if you mention my whereabouts to **_anyone_**, not only will I force you to rearrange your own internal organs, I will also tell Mother you've been sneaking off to the ninth circle by yourself."

"Alright, fine!" Eli pleaded. "Just promise you'll come back home soon."

"I'll see what I can do." Raven offered. "Now, you owe an apology to my friend here." She set him down, grabbing Jinx's outstretched hand to pull her to her feet.

"I'm sorry for trying to eat you." Eli said, still crossing his arms while avoiding looking at Jinx.

"Don't sweat it, kid; I've been through worse." Jinx said casually. "So, Rae, who exactly is this?"

"Right. Jinx, this is my younger brother, Eli. He has some… jealousy issues."

"No kidding." Jinx said. "So, siblings, huh. You got any more?"

"Several." Raven sighed. "Though none of them are quite so clingy."

"I think it's kinda cute." Jinx said, eliciting a blush and a pout from Eli. "Little man's just lookin' out for big sis; I can respect that."

"More like trying to keep me to himself." Raven corrected.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't really know; closest thing I ever had to siblings were Mike and Baran."

"They certainly do behave as if they were brothers." Raven noted. "Now, go home, Eli."

"Fine." He conceded as he wrapped her in a hug. "But if you don't come back to visit soon, I'm coming back up here."

"I would expect no less." Raven said, watching him disappear into a neon green portal.

"Interesting family so far…" Jinx commented. "When do I get to meet the rest of 'em?"

"Well, if my father finds out what I've done, you'll get to meet him up close and personal."

"Something tells me he's not the type to wear flannel and tell dad jokes." Jinx quipped.

"Hardly." Raven said. "He's more the type to gut a man while forcefully keeping his body alive to endure it."

"Sounds cheery." Jinx grimaced. "Speaking of 'cheery', are you sure you weren't a little harsh on your brother? With the whole 'rearranging his organs' thing?"

"He tried to eat you." Raven looked incredulous.

"Yeah, I know." Jinx said. "But I've been hanging around you for a while now, and it's not hard to pick up on the fact that Hell doesn't exactly subscribe to human notions of societal norms and social etiquette."

"I can't believe you're not upset that my brother wanted to kill you and ingest your corpse."

"Rae, you've threatened to eat at least three people since we started at HIVE." Jinx pointed out.

"Yes, and those people not only would have deserved it, they were also rightly upset about the idea of it." Raven argued.

"Alright, look." Jinx said. "I'm obviously not 'okay' with the fact that your younger brother wanted to eat me because he was jealous that you were spending all your time with me, but I wasn't lying when I said I'd dealt with worse. Clearly, demons are raised with a different idea of what's acceptable, and I get that; I didn't exactly have a 'normal' upbringing myself."

"I… suppose you may have a point." Raven conceded. "But I wish you'd take nearly dying a bit more seriously."

"The day I take _anything_ seriously is the day they surgically remove the part of my brain that makes up my amazing personality." Jinx insisted.

"Such as it were." Raven said sarcastically. "Well, now that the family reunion is over, would you like to head back to the school, or were you planning to anger some kind of Eldritch beast today as well?"

"Yeah, going back to school is probably a good idea."

* * *

"Oh, hello Raven. I wouldn't have expected to see you here today."

"One could make a similar assumption for a teacher." Raven said. "I was wondering if you could take a look at something for me."

"I suppose I have some time." Mr. Jacobs assented. "What have you got?"

"I found this," she fished the necklace from the impossibly deep recesses of her cloak, "on our mission to retrieve the company vehicles. One of the thugs we incapacitated was wearing it; he claimed it could shield an individual from magical detection. It certainly accomplished as much, but given the several suspicious factors involved in the assignment, I was hoping you could tell me what else, if anything, this item is capable of."

"Hmm…" He held it out before him by the chain. "It doesn't surprise me that you don't recognize it; it's a tool commonly used by demon hunters. Normally, yes, this sort of thing is used as magical camouflage, but this particular talisman has been altered to serve a dual-purpose."

"…Which is?" Raven prompted.

"I haven't the slightest idea." Mr. Jacobs dropped the necklace in her open palm. "As far as I can see, its second purpose was either never implemented, or disguised so cleverly that neither a hunter of my caliber nor a high-class demon are able to detect it. And considering just how unlikely the latter scenario is, I think it's pretty safe to assume that there are no 'surprises' hiding in there. And who knows, it might come in handy for you later on."

"I'll keep that in mind." Raven said, once again pocketing the artifact. "There was one other thing I wanted to ask you, as well."

"What's that?"

"What can you tell me about a student named James Sherwood?"

"Nothing I'm sure your technologically inclined teammate couldn't dig up." Mr. Jacobs said. "Is he causing problems for you?"

"No." Raven shook her head. "At least, not yet, as far as I know. But he has developed a personal interest in me, and I'd like to be sure he doesn't _become _a problem in the future."

"That's understandable." Mr. Jacobs rubbed his chin. "Normally, I wouldn't try to tell someone about their own culture, as it makes me feel like a jackass. But, you being who and what you are, well, powerful demons tend to draw those who desire power closer to them, usually through their aura. I would imagine _your_ aura is likely extremely potent, thanks to your father."

"You know my lineage?" Raven asked dubiously.

"It's not exactly particularly difficult to spot the spawn of the most dangerous demon in existence." Mr. Jacobs said. "I've met Trigon in person before, and the resemblance is uncanny."

"You've met him? I'm amazed you survived the encounter." Raven said.

"I'm sure he was, too." Mr. Jacobs chuckled. "He is, naturally, not fond of hunters, and now me more so than others for having escaped with my life. I'll admit, I did try to kill him, but I've since learned that he is one being who is _well_ beyond my capabilities."

"Well, you're not the first person to learn that lesson." Raven laughed once. "Though you may be the first human to survive the experience. Thank you for your help; I suppose I'll have to ask Gizmo to look at James' file again."

"Hold on." Mr. Jacobs stopped her. "I'm not supposed to divulge information about one student to another, but in my opinion, that boy isn't entirely stable. I believe in this case, it may be justified if it helps you feel safe." He held up a hand to stop her from interrupting him. "I know you can handle yourself in a fight if necessary, but so can he, going by his combat performance history, as well as his one-hundred percent success rate on missions. If you want to know more about him, his father is Head of Engineering at Jump's Wayne Enterprises."

Raven nodded once before turning around and making her exit, heading in the direction she could sense would lead her to Jinx.

* * *

"You know there are easier ways of doing this, right?" Jinx asked rhetorically. She had, on Raven's request, agreed to help gather more information on Cryo, which apparently involved breaking into one of the wealthiest and most powerful companies on Earth. Or at least, their Jump City branch, as the front door seemed proud of advertising.

"I'm open to suggestions." Raven said. "I've already asked Gizmo, and he told me that as good as he is, Wayne Enterprises' cyber-security was too much for him to handle."

"So naturally, we do this the old-fashioned way." Jinx said. "Does this place also have wards stopping you from just teleporting in?"

Rave shook her head. "No, but I do need a clear visual destination when traveling that way. Once I can see where I'm going, it's a simple matter, but I have no idea what part of the building this man works in."

"So, what do you need me for, then?" Jinx asked in confusion. "It's not like you're actually doing the _breaking_ part of the breaking and entering; all we're doin' is walkin' through a few walls to find a computer that'll likely have the info, and plugging Gizzy's device in so he can hack it remotely. After that, you could have just had him guide you to this guy's office."

"I could have done that." Raven admitted. "But then I would have been stuck listening to his voice all night, which would have meant I'd be hearing his ridiculous version of swearing on top of his constant complaining. Whereas if you're with me, he can simply send us a map because there will be someone here who would actually be able to read it."

"Yeah, I guess I can understand that." Jinx said as they phased into what must have been the fifth room that didn't have what they were looking for. "His voice can be pretty grating in long doses with how nasally it is. … So, is that the… only, reason?" She wasn't sure what made her ask, or why it was at all important, but now that the question was out there, she was a little worried the answer might be yes.

"Well, I have to admit," Raven said, "your presence is decidedly more… amiable, than other humans I'd become accustomed to meeting, and these sort of activities can be a bit tedious when one is alone." Jinx fought down a blush at her words, still confused as to why she was so affected by them in the first place. Trying to regain her composure, she decided to change the subject.

"So, um, speaking of reading…" Jinx cleared her throat a couple of times. "How long until you're slated to be done with English class?"

"According to my instructor, based on the current rate at which I'm advancing, I should be at a passable level of fluency before the end of December."

"That's good news." Jinx said. "I always hated English class when I first got to this country."

"You're not from here originally?" Raven looked sidelong at her.

"Nope, but that's a story for another time, because I'm pretty sure this is the room we're looking for." Raven had no doubt she was right; the room they'd come in to must have been some sort of hub. Rows upon rows of large, electrically powered boxes the likes of which Raven had never seen filled the room to capacity.

"What is all this?" She turned to her teammate.

"If I had to guess, I'd say this is their server farm." Jinx said, continuing when she saw the confused look on Raven's face. "All the information that runs through this place goes here at some point."

"It must be a lot to have this many of these things." Raven said.

"Nah." Jinx waved off her comment. "This is like the size of a garage; you should see some'a the ones they got down in Silicon Valley. Those things are like the size of airplane hangars, and they're fuckin' freezing from all the cold air they gotta push through there in order to keep the hardware from fryin'."

"Interesting." Raven commented. "Which one of these is the one we're after?"

"Uhh… good question." Jinx said. "Let's call Giz and see if he knows." She took out her communicator, which brought a prideful smile to her face every time she saw it due to how much more professional the design was than the one from Junior HIVE, and made her feel much more mature whenever she made a call. Shaking her head to get her focus back, she dialed Gizmo's comm number.

"Whaddya want? Did you find it yet?" Gizmo shouted through their line.

"First of all, keep your damn voice down; and second, you never told us which server we're looking for."

"Uh, right, my bad." Gizmo said, a bit embarrassed. He brought up some files on the computer in the background, scanning with his eyes for just a few seconds. "Okay, most of 'em are gonna have a bunch'a orange lights blinkin' all over; you're lookin' for the one with one blue light."

Their search lasted all of thirty seconds before Jinx declared she'd found it, plugging the hacking device into the proper port through Gizmo's direction.

"Alright, we got you in. What do you see?" Jinx asked.

"I got… emails and passwords, worthless to us; company profit records, again, useless… Hey! Top secret weapons blueprints!"

"Not what we're here for." Jinx shut him down. His scowl deepened, and he went back to searching.

"Fine, here's the address." He clicked a few keys, and a line of text appeared on screen.

"Thanks, Mike!" Jinx quickly pulled the device out of the server and pocketed it before closing her comm, and had raven teleport them out.

* * *

"So, why are we going to this much trouble over this guy?" Jinx asked as they walked along the darkened streets of the upper-class Jump residential district. "Couldn't you just crush his skull if he gets too out of line?"

"Punishment is a tool." Raven explained. "You need to choose the right one for every task. If he does become a problem, which at this point looks to be fairly inevitable, I'm almost certain it will be to the point at which simple death is an improper response. We're here to find the path of least resistance to his demise."

"Then, what are you gonna do to him?"

"I'm not sure yet." Raven admitted. "Perhaps I'll assault his mind to the point of driving him mad; I may simply eat his soul. Truthfully, it will depend on the situation at hand."

"Well, I'm sure it will be fun to watch." Jinx said. "Oh look, we're here." The Sherwood family residence looked much the same as pretty much every other house on this side of town: multistoried, a pastel paint job, and opulent architecture that served no function other than to show off the owner's wealth.

_'__These people must feel real safe behind their white picket fences.' _ Jinx thought as she and Raven crossed the front yard; there were no alarms of any kind, they didn't even have a dog.

They likewise met no resistance on phasing through the front door and into the foyer. More reminders of the family's affluence spotted the inside of the abode in the form of expensive decorations, but Jinx wasn't focused on the material possessions around them.

"Let's look upstairs." She whispered. "Rich people always sleep on the second floor for some reason."

"…If you say so."

Just as Jinx had predicted, they found the master bedroom at the end of the hall leading directly off from the top of the staircase. Inside were, as expected, a middle-aged man and woman resting peacefully in the bed.

The two home invaders quietly strode over to their still forms, the well-maintained floors not making a hint of a creak or a groan in the silence, even under Jinx's heavy boots. Raven split her gaze, focusing three eyes each on either of the sleeping pair, while the light emanating from them grew noticeably in intensity. Other than an odd twitch of facial muscle, Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood stayed fast asleep as Raven searched their minds.

"Anything?" Jinx asked as soon as everything had gone back to normal.

"Maybe." Raven answered cryptically. "He still keeps a room in this house."

At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with James' bedroom, aside from being much tidier than one would expect from a teenage boy. Even as they searched his belongings, the mundanity of the results was starting to the whole endeavor feel fruitless.

They were both on the verge of giving up when Jinx's keen eyes spotted a faint outline in the back wall of the closet.

"Hey Rae, looks like we got a closet cultist." Jinx's pun and her accompanying grin was enough to make Raven facepalm and sigh audibly.

"That was terrible." Raven whispered. "What did you find?"

Jinx held up a pendant for her to see; a circle of eight connected arrows pointing inward hung at the end of a thin red cord. "I have no idea. If the arrows were facing the other way, I'd say it was a chaos star, but I've never seen this symbol before. What about you?"

Raven shook her head. "I can't say that I have either, but the energy coming off of it is familiar in a way. At least now we have something to go off of." She looked around the room again. "We're not going to find anything else here; we should go." She used her powers to make certain everything was back in its original position, and, after Jinx took a picture of the pendant, teleported them both back to HIVE.

* * *

**So, on an unrelated note, does anyone know of any polyshipping fics with Raven? It doesn't have to be a harem, I'm just looking for any stories where she ends up with more than one person, preferably yuri. Just please, no BBxRae.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Fear not, dear readers, for I live once more! This chapter seriously kicked my ass, between breaking a tooth, my phone bricking itself, and mandatory 60 hour weeks being instated at work, but it's finally done. But enough about me, time for the fun part of the author's note: reviews.**

**First up, I'd like to thank you all for your fic recommendations, but I've actually read all the ones suggested. Nevertheless, I'm grateful for the help. **

**(BTW, Prey Mate is my favorite as well).**

**xbox432: Thanks! I noticed the same thing, and considering I have literally zero relationship experience, it's a relief to know I'm doing well enough writing theirs.**

**Imouto's mad house: Don't you worry, he'll get his. Also, Raven's design for this fic was purely a stylistic choice; some iterations of Trigon give him six eyes, and I wanted to show that she's quite a bit more like her father than in canon, even more so than her siblings, which is why Eli only had four eyes.**

VI

"Alright, everyone, we're doing things a little different today." The booming voice of the head combat instructor resounded throughout the gym. "Instead of the usual course routine, you'll be playing a tried and true American classic; an equalizer among students for decades." He pulled his arm from behind his back, and in his hand sat a large red sphere. "Dodgeball."

The center of the gym floor split open, the space quickly filled by a panel holding a line of rubber balls spanning the width of the floor. Most of the students looked excited at the prospect, while others stood in confusion.

"Uh, how does this help train us to be soldiers for hire?" Jinx asked.

"It doesn't." He said. "Not directly, anyway. It is the belief of HIVE's board of directors, as well as myself, that you all need more variety in the physical aspect of your training here, so we'll be switching it up every once in a while with an actual sport; keeps you on your toes, and I suppose it's good for your reflexes, too."

He looked at each student, pointing silently as he read what was on his clipboard, most likely taking attendance, before continuing.

"Couple of rules before we begin: maiming a fellow student will get you suspended, killing will result in your immediate expulsion. There will be no telekinesis, psychokinesis, or any other ability that will allow you to hold the ball with anything but your hands, your physical state will remain solid at all times, and no duplication. Okay, Cryo and Jinx, you're team captains." He pulled out a coin and pointed at Jinx. "Heads or tails?"

"Tails."

The coin was flipped. "It's heads; Cryo gets first pick."

"Let's see." Cryo tapped a finger to his chin. "I choose… Raven." Raven looked to Jinx with a raised eyebrow.

"It's cool." Jinx affirmed. "No point in making a scene about it."

Raven nodded, letting her cloak dissolve into her shadow, which left her in just her athletic wear. She walked over to James and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him down to her eye level. The fact that he was an entire head taller than her did nothing to detract from her intimidating countenance.

"I don't know what kind of game you're playing, or where this little obsession with me came from, but I feel I should remind you that, historically, testing a demon's patience does not end well."

Cryo held up his hands in the universal gesture of surrender. "I can assure you the only game I intend to play is this one here." He waved a hand to the dodgeballs on the floor. "The reason I picked you was for your considerable athletic prowess; it's got nothin' to do with my little… infatuation."

"Doubtful." Raven said. She attempted to search his mind for answers, but she hit a wall before she could get anywhere.

"You know, it's rude to invade someone's thoughts, Raven." Cryo smirked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Raven released him from her grip, giving him a light shove and walking away. "Oh, and if I catch you staring at me, I will personally escort you to the gates of Hell."

"Anyway…" The instructor said. "Jinx, who's your pick."

"Gimme Pyro."

Erik looked between Jinx, Raven, James, and the instructor. "Fine. I thought you hated me, though?"

"Hate's a strong word." Jinx said. "I mean, sure, I don't like you, but I can't deny the fact that you're a good athlete, and since he got Raven, I had to settle for you."

"Whatever. Just don't expect me to go for her."

"Come on, you can't be that scared." Jinx insisted.

"I prefer the term 'survival instinct'."

"Ahem." The instructor interrupted them. "You can save your arguments for later; make your next pick."

Ten minutes and several acts of pettiness later, the teams were finally set up. Jinx was mostly satisfied with the players on her team, but she'd have felt a lot better about their chances if she had Raven.

As soon as everyone had a hand on the wall, a whistle was blown, signaling the start of the game. It was an instant mad dash for ammo, many students leaving indents in the wall where they had pushed off from.

Under normal circumstances, dodgeball was already a chaotic affair, with actual strategy usually taking a backseat to brute force. When it was played by teams of metahuman teenagers, that chaos increased tenfold. The sound of rubber impacting various surfaces was akin to thunderclaps, people were getting red marks left and right, and as fast as they were being stuck out, someone else was getting them back in.

Jinx moved with the grace of a professional ballet dancer as she skirted the other team's throws. However, for all her ability to dodge, she was left unable to make any kind of offensive move.

Raven, on the other hand, was scoring outs like an automaton. Dodgeballs were turned into wrecking balls in her skilled hands as students were thrown into walls as well as each other, a few unfortunate ones having to go to the nearest trash can to vomit before taking a seat on the bleachers to wait until they got back in.

Cryo was playing it safe, it seemed. He had elected to hang back, only taking shots when he deemed the risk worth it. Pyro, conversely, was going out of his way to make as many catches as he could to keep their team alive.

Not that they were particularly thrilled about getting back into the game.

Mammoth and Gizmo were not present for their team's current endeavor; Mammoth because he was simply too large a target for a game like this, and Gizmo had managed to get excused from having to play any actual sports for being at the opposite end of the spectrum; without technological assistance, he was at too much of a disadvantage to be effective. This suited both of them just fine, as neither cared for non-combative exercise.

"Hey Raven." Cryo said, making a last-second dodge. "Would ya' like to clue me in as to why you're goin' for everyone except Jinx?"

Raven exhaled audibly. "Not that it's any of your business, but I won't perform any action that would bring harm to her, and as I'm sure you're aware, I tend to be _quite_ harmful to my opposition."

"I noticed." Cryo glanced at the other team's bench. "You could try letting up a little and throwing it at her."

"I do not operate at less than peak performance." Raven insisted as she caught a ball headed for the back of her head.

"That's understandable, I suppose." Cryo said. "Ya' know, I couldn't help but notice that you're a little… ignorant of Earth culture, yet you seem to know this game pretty well."

"We have a version of this game where I come from under the same name, except it's played using freshly severed heads, and the losers are fed to a behemoth. It's a very popular sport in Hell."

"I'll bet it is." Cryo agreed.

"Tell me, what exactly is the point of trying to win me over?" Raven asked, scoring a particularly brutal out that resulted in the unfortunate student losing two teeth. "You know next to nothing about me, and I know you have no connection to the politics in Hell, so why me? Surely there are other girls who would swoon at your attempts to be charming and would actually have some semblance of interest in pursuing a relationship with you?"

"Oh sure, I could have my choice of nearly any girl in this school," Cryo said, catching a ball that likely would have sent him flying back, had he not rooted himself to the ground with ice, "but none of 'em… fascinate me, the way you do."

"That's a common human reaction when faced with great power; demons, angels, gods, and the like are naturally harder to comprehend from a mortal's perspective. Is that all, then; you see me as some sort of challenge?"

"Well, I'll admit it's a factor." Cryo said. "But it's hardly the driving one. You've got a lot of qualities I admire: you're powerful, you don't hesitate to stand up to those who cross you, you likely have a realistic world-view, and you're definitely more than a little easy on the eyes."

"You've just described half of Hell and nearly all of Heaven." Raven sidestepped an incoming projectile. Having been standing only a few feet in front of Cryo, he didn't have enough time to react, taking an especially hard hit directly to the face and ending up flat on his back. At the same time, someone had finally managed to get Jinx, leaving Pyro as the last one on his team.

All but one ball had rolled out of bounds, which was now lying on the line separating the two teams. Raven and Pyro raced to get it, but Raven was faster.

Pyro was sweating bullets now as he realized he was barely a foot away from the girl who could probably annihilate him on a molecular level without lifting a finger. Raven spun the ball a few times in her fingers and pulled back her arm. Pyro shielded his face with his arms, expecting to hit the back wall, but he was surprised when he only felt the ball tap his chest once.

"What, that's it?" Pyro asked nervously.

"You need to relax more." Raven told him, letting the ball hit the floor. "Too much stress is bad for your heart." When the instructor officially said the game was over, Raven went over to the bleachers to speak to Cryo.

When she reached him, she saw that half his face now almost matched the colour of her own skin. "Your approach is tactless, and it's clear you have no idea how to properly speak to a demon, much less try to court one. Why don't you study up on what a hellspawn actually wants to hear, and get back to me with an attempt that doesn't fall as pathetically flat as you did out on the floor."

* * *

"Okay, what are we gonna see tonight?" Jinx asked her team. They had gathered in one of HIVE's many common areas, trying to decide on a movie genre.

"I vote sci-fi." Gizmo said. "Every time you pick, it's just some grisly slasher flick that was only made to give Hollywood another excuse to be as gratuitously violent as they can get away with. Those movies have no substance, and the plot is always the same: crazy bad guy kills teens because reasons."

"Alright, Christ, I didn't ask for a dissertation." Jinx said. "What about you Raven?"

"I'm fairly partial to the gratuitous violence, myself."

"Naturally." Jinx smiled. "Well, Baran, looks like you get the deciding vote."

"Uh, we don't all have to see the same movie." Mammoth suggested. "You guys can go see your horror movie, and me and Gizmo'll go watch the newest _Transformers_."

"Sounds good to me." Gizmo agreed.

Jinx scoffed. "And you wanted to tell _me_ about no substance, and then go watch _Explosions: The series._"

"Least there's an actual story." Gizmo countered.

"Whatever." Jinx ceded. "I guess it's decided, then; Raven and I will watch some actual quality entertainment, while you watch the latest installment of Michael Bay's detonation fetish."

* * *

"Two tickets for _Buzz Killer,_ please." Jinx told the ticket vendor.

"That's an 'R' rated film, girls." She said in a bored tone. "Either get a fake ID or get an actual adult to buy the tickets."

"Well… she's old enough." Jinx pointed to Raven. "She's a five-thousand-year-old demon from the nether world."

"Really?" The vendor asked, clearly not believing them. "Care to prove it?" Raven grabbed the edges of her hood and pulled it halfway back, dropping her disguise long enough for the cashier to get a good look. "Whatever." She sighed and gave the girls their tickets.

"So, what _is_ this movie about?" Raven asked as they took their seats.

"Some dude's brother got killed by a drunk driving teen, so now he kills teenagers for drinking as revenge."

"I suppose all the real effort went into the different ways he ends their lives, then?"

"Probably, but that's what we're actually here for anyway."

"True." Raven agreed. "Humans have always had a fascinating level of creativity when it comes to killing each other; their capacity for cruelty easily rivals and even outmatches that of any of the denizens of Hell."

"Yeah yeah, people suck." Jinx said. "Now shh; the movie's starting." The movie was, as expected, a gory blood-fest with little in the way of creative storytelling. Still, the collective fear continued to rise as it went on, and Raven could taste it in the air like a gourmet chocolate.

About halfway through, another scent joined the fray. The pungent spice of malice was wafting about, mixing poorly with the sweetness and only growing stronger. Raven looked around them for the source, finding a middle-aged man in the back row wearing a trench coat and looking anxious, as if waiting for something.

She was going to ignore it, until he stood up and reached a hand into his coat. When he pulled it out, Raven could easily recognize the firearm as such. He aimed it in time with the movie, and pulled the trigger at the same moment a gun was fired on screen.

Red sprayed from a viewer in the front row, resulting in instant chaos. People went screaming toward the exits, and the man gunned down several more people before Raven teleported behind him, dispelling her disguise. He whipped around and his bloodlust turned to fear when he saw her. He quickly popped off a shot, and the force caused her head to snap backwards.

When she leaned forward again, her eyes were blazing red, and the man could swear he was getting a glimpse of Hell. The bullet he'd fired was in between her teeth, and Raven bit down, easily tearing through the metal. He went to fire again, and this time, Raven bit off the entire end of the gun barrel.

"What the fuck? What the fuck are you?" He asked, tossing aside the remains of his weapon and taking a step back.

**_"_****_I'll show you."_** Raven said, just before teleporting both of them away.

Jinx was still reeling as she stood outside away from the crowd. Raven just caught a bullet with her teeth, and was almost certainly going to kill that guy. That thought was cemented as fact when a man's agonized scream tore through the post-shooting calm that had begun to settle. This was the first time Jinx had seen Raven that enraged. Her eyes had been glowing with more intensity than ever before, and there were traces of violet amidst the red.

The demon herself appeared walking out of an alley across the street, looking human once more. The corner of her mouth was stained red, and Jinx wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer to her next question.

"Did… did you actually eat that guy?"

"Only partially." Raven said, wiping away the excess fluid. "Cowardice tends to ruin the taste of flesh and soul, but it's nearly impossible to sour the heart. Heroes and warriors, on the other hand, are quite the delicacy, but don't worry, this sort of thing is actually a pretty rare occurrence for me."

"Well, that's good, I suppose." Jinx said, then noticed someone walking down the street, looking over their shoulders repeatedly. "Hey, is that… is that Cryo?"

Raven looked where Jinx was pointing, and nodded once before she grabbed Jinx and teleported. When they emerged, they were in the shadows behind their fellow HIVE student. They silently followed as he went down an alley, stopping in front of a section of wall that would likely never draw attention unless one knew what they were looking for.

He pulled out the pendant they'd found in his closet, and pressed it into a near-invisible indent in the wall. The wall itself moved inward, before splitting down the middle to reveal a previously hidden entrance. Raven and Jinx waited the door closed and he was well inside before leaving their hiding spot.

"Think you can get us in?" Jinx asked as Raven cast her gaze to the door.

Raven shook her head. "No. The wards on this place were specifically designed to keep demons out."

"So, all we need is a key." Jinx said, tapping the indent. At her touch, the keyhole glowed the same pink as her hex magic, and the door opened again. "Or maybe we don't." She took a step inside, and breathed out a relieved sigh when nothing happened. She walked in a little further, but stopped when Raven caught her attention.

"I can't get in." Raven put a hand up the doorway, demonstrating her point when it refused to pass through, looking similar to what happens when someone presses on a computer screen. "We should go."

"Or…" Jinx prompted. "I could go in and see what's going down in there."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Raven argued. "We have no idea what they might have waiting for trespassers, and I can't protect you in there."

Jinx sighed. "You might have a point; can you not dispel the wards?"

"Not without alerting whoever put them up, and whoever that person was, is a very skilled mage. I'm not keen on the idea of leveling this building, or even the block, fighting an unknown opponent just to get answers."

"Alright." Jinx said somewhat sulkily. "Do you wanna head back to the school, or did you wanna do anything else first?"

"Not right now." Raven said, and together, they blinked out of existence.

* * *

When they returned to corporeality, the grounds were empty except for two people sitting on a bench: Melanie and Mr. Cell. They were about thirty yards away, but that was more than close enough to notice a couple of teenagers just popping up from literally nowhere. Melanie stood and said something to Mr. Cell that Raven and Jinx couldn't hear, and they smiled at each other before she started walking towards them.

"I hear you two had an interesting night; you in particular, Raven."

"Interesting is certainly one word for it."

"Is it on the news already?" Jinx asked.

Melanie nodded. "As well as pretty much every social media site there is." She pulled up a video on her phone and handed it to the girls. The video started with the man firing at moviegoers, and showed everything up to Raven's interaction with him, then immediately cut to outside, where his scream could be heard in the background. "Listen, I like you girls; you're great students, and you understand the world better than most of the kids here, but when the higher ups see this, and believe me, they will, they might think you're compromising the reputation, or even the security, of HIVE Academy, and expulsion is on the lower end of what they do to those they consider a threat to the school."

"I apologize for losing control of myself." Raven said. "But I am not sorry for defending myself, and I do not regret my actions. I will try to keep a better eye on my surroundings to avoid witnesses in the future."

"Well, that's not quite what I meant, but it will certainly suffice. On another note, are you both alright after all that; these kind of things can be a bit much to deal with, especially for teenagers."

"Uh, Melanie." Raven said. "I was raised in Hell; I've seen things ten times worse as casual entertainment."

"Point taken." Melanie said. "What about you, Jinx?"

"Well, I'll admit this is the first time I've ever seen someone murdered in person, but it's gonna take more than that to get to me."

"That's good to hear." Melanie said with a smile.

"So, you and Mr. Cell, huh?" Jinx said slyly.

"Why, I have no idea what you're talking about." Melanie said with a smirk. "Yes, we're trying out a relationship; it's been quite a while for both of us, and he's a very sweet man, and this really isn't a conversation to be having with my students, even if they are my favorite ones."

"Ms. Fields, playing favorites." Jinx mock gasped. "For shame."

"Only the teachers have to remain unbiased." Melanie countered. "I can have whatever opinion I please about students." Even Raven had to laugh at their antics, but something mildly concerning occurred to her just then.

"You know we forgot to get the boys, right?" Raven said after Melanie had left them for the night.

"Eh, they've got two feet and a heartbeat." Jinx said. "Right now, I need something to eat. I assume you're not hungry?"

"You assume correctly. Now, about Cryo. We need to figure out a way to see what he's doing the next time he enters that building."

"Actually, I think I have an idea for that, but you're not gonna like it."

"Cryo is hiding something dangerous." Raven reminded her. "It's obviously related to your powers, and I can't help but think it has something to do with why he wishes to be romantically involved with me. Whatever it is, I will deal with it."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

* * *

**A/N: Before we close, now that we've established that a true Raven centric harem fic really doesn't exist, would anyone like to see me write one? I can't promise it'll happen soon, as the idea I have needs to be developed more, and I need to get my update rate back down again, but I'm definitely prepared to do one at some point if people are interested.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Alright, got this one out pretty quickly, comparatively speaking. I don't have much to say up top this time, so on to the reviews!**

**RandomAnon: You make an excellent point; that scene was actually slated for deletion, but since my memory is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine, sometimes things just kind of go under my radar. I probably won't delete it now, though, since it's more of a redundancy than a detraction.**

**Kotomi101: Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely keep an eye on those things in the future. As for the clothes, though, I've always disliked describing outifts in overt detail. Unless it adds to a scene, I prefer to leave what the characters are wearing mostly ambiguous.**

**Imouto's mad house: I have read Transition, and it was fantastic. Also, don't worry, we'll get to see Raven in all her demonic glory when the time comes.**

**Legion Breacher: If they're ice cream skittles, I accept.**

VII

"C'mon, tell me." Jinx pleaded her only female friend.

"No." Raven told her again. "Now let me focus." She continued mixing the chemical compound they had been assigned to make, levitating the ingredients for accuracy and ease of access.

"Why not?" Jinx whined. "I told you mine." She had already hurriedly finished her own mixture, and while it did pass, science just wasn't able to hold her attention the way magic did.

"You'll find out at the end of the week." Raven said.

"But who knows how long that'll take?" Jinx asked melodramatically. "Come on, is it Batgirl? She's around our age group, and she's got kind of a dark aesthetic."

"No, she's a bit, hyperactive for my tastes."

"Catwoman? She's pretty badass, and she's not afraid to put somebody's skull under her boot."

"No."

"Okay, what about… Wonder Woman? Amazon princess and most powerful woman on the planet? Actually, _could_ you beat Wonder Woman in a fight?"

"I don't know, and I'm not eager to try." Raven said.

"Fair enough; can't say I'd wanna fight her, either." Jinx agreed. "How about Zatanna, then? You're both good with magic."

"You know, I met Ms. Zatara once. She displayed extreme prejudice against my people, then had the nerve to ask my mother if she would like to be killed rather than continue her marriage to my father, and raising me and my siblings. She saw it as an act of mercy."

"But isn't your mom a demon?"

"She is now." Raven explained. "But she was human before she met my father, and let him turn her into a demon in order to be together."

"Okay, note to self: do not bring up Zatanna again." Jinx said.

"I would appreciate that."

"So, you're really just not gonna tell me who you're going as?" Jinx steered the conversation back to it's original point.

"Jinx, the Halloween party is only a few days away. I promise you'll survive not knowing my choice of costume until then."

"Uugghh! You suuuck." Jinx groaned.

"I'll remember that the next time you need transportation." Raven smirked.

"Well now, let's not be too hasty." Jinx said. "There's not a lot within walking distance of the school, and the ol' lambor-feeties aren't built for road trips."

"…I'm going to pretend you didn't say that to me." Raven deadpanned.

"Fine, be that way, ya killjoy." Jinx crossed her arms, then immediately went to tapping on the table as she thought of other things to talk about. "Sooo… is Mr. Jacobs back, yet?"

"Not yet; he's on an indeterminate leave, so I have no idea when he'll return."

"Well, I hope it's somewhat soon; it's bad for the learning process when you take too long a break between lessons."

"How is it," Raven asked, "that you are able to fluidly switch between speaking sophomorically and, well, it's not quite proper eloquence, but it's certainly a step more sophisticated."

"Oh that? That's just what happens when you stop givin' a shit." Jinx explained. "I mean, sure, I could articulate, pontificate, expatiate, and plenty of other '-ate's', but what would be the point? To make other people think I'm smart? Who cares what they think? I know what I'm doing and what I want in life, and that's all that matters."

"Of course, that being said, I don't condemn people for being well spoken. If it makes you happy to never use a word with less than three syllables, more power to ya. Like you; you speak plenty intelligently, but you're not a pompous ass about it. It's like listening to a professional lecture, but only on my favorite subjects."

"Um… thank you?" Raven semi-asked, before completing the last step in her assignment. "Mr. Cell." The teacher looked up from his computer. "I've finished."

"Wonderful." He smiled, walking over to examine her work. He took a sample and inserted it into a handheld device, marking down the readings it gave. "Excellent work, Raven; a perfect score." She nodded in acknowledgement, leaning back in her seat as she waited out the last few minutes of class, shutting down Jinx's continued attempts to pry information from her.

* * *

As the day went on, Jinx kept trying different methods to get Raven to tell her who she was going to be for Halloween. If it were anyone else, Raven would have gotten fed up with it within minutes, but instead, Jinx's seemingly boundless creativity only served to amuse Raven.

Eventually, Jinx did give up, if only because she needed to finish up her own costume. Interestingly enough, she hadn't spotted a hint of Raven's costume, despite the fact they shared a room and did nearly everything together.

The theme of the party was Heroes and Villains, as cliché as that was, and Raven held a surprising amount of knowledge regarding the Justice League and their enemies, as well as a lot of the solo acts.

Jinx thought about what Raven said earlier about Zatanna, and it got her wondering again just who Raven's family was. She wasn't going to pry, of course; she understood family issues just fine, and even though Raven had _mentioned_ them, she seemed to deliberately avoid talking about them in detail.

"I'm sure I'll find out eventually." Jinx said to herself as she hung her costume up in the closet, ready to wear on Friday. She heard a knock at the door, and was greeted by Melanie.

"Hello, Jinx. Would you happen to know where Raven is?" She looked around the room, finding no sign of the girl.

"I haven't seen her in about an hour." Jinx answered. "Is this another mission?" She'd been wanting to get out and do something again.

"You could call it that." Melanie said. "As you know, you and Raven are HIVE's only magic users; and a witch and demon to boot. And given that this is Halloween, we, as in the staff of HIVE, were wondering if you two would like to take the lead on decorations for the rest of the week?"

"Oh, Hell yeah!" Jinx exclaimed. "I'd definitely be down for that, and I'm sure Rae is, too; I'll ask when I see her."

"Thanks, Jinx." Melanie said. "I know you two'll do a great job."

"No problem."

* * *

By Thursday, Jinx was getting antsy; being intentionally denied information was one of her biggest pet peeves, even for something as small as this, but there wasn't a lot she could do about it in this case. There was no equipment to hack, no files to steal, just Raven being her enigmatic self.

Decorating was a good distraction, though; and she was genuinely proud of her and Raven's work. Most of the school now resembled a haunted house; lights would dim and flicker randomly, shadows would move in peripheral vision, and the atmosphere would spontaneously generate cold spots, as if ghosts were moving about the building. On top of that, whispers and incoherent mutterings could be heard when one was alone, and there were realistic blood stains, spider webs scattered around, and unnatural pockets of darkness that radiated pure dread in close proximity.

The main attraction, though, was the gym. Being nearly entirely Raven's doing, she claimed it was modeled after the throne room in the palace of Hell, and Jinx didn't doubt she was telling the truth.

The room itself was changed to look like it was made of obsidian; the walls, the floor, the ceiling, everything was reflective black. What wasn't obsidian, the tables, chairs, chandelier, and even the throne, was made from a strange red metal Jinx had never seen before. The surface looked fluid and flowing, but at a touch, it was solid and smooth. Visions of tortured souls adorned the walls, flaming skeletal bats clung to the roof, and a layer of fog covered the floor.

However, the most impressive addition was the dais. The red metal of the throne was accented in gold, and there was a constant fall of lava pouring behind it. At least, that's what people would see; it was all basic illusion magic, but that didn't make the end results less amazing, and as long as no one was actively working to dispel it, it would hold until they decided to take it down. So busy was she with admiring the work, that she almost didn't notice its architect.

"What do you think?" Raven asked.

"This is seriously fuckin' cool." Jinx said. "So this is what Trigon's throne room looks like?"

"Well, I left out the torture devices, for obvious reasons, as well as the actual size of the throne." Raven said. "And the rest of the decorating team insisted on the fog, but other than that, it's an exact replica."

"I can't wait to see it tomorrow when we put up the jack-o-lanterns."

"It will be quite the sight." Raven agreed.

"By the way, what's all the red stuff?"

"Hm? Oh, you mean the furniture; it's called blood iron. Hell's monarchs, and really, demons in general, have always had a flair for dramatics, and what better way to show off your power than to sit on a throne literally crafted from the blood of your enemies?"

"That's pretty damn metal." Jinx said. "No pun intended."

"I don't believe that for a second."

* * *

When classes let out the next day, the students were itching to get back to their rooms and change for the party. Even though it wouldn't start for a couple of hours, everyone was excited to show off their costumes. The majority had dressed as villains, but there was still a sizeable amount of Justice League outfits in appearance.

"It's eerie how it almost doesn't look any different than a normal day." Jinx said. She currently sported a red and black skin-tight jester's outfit, white face paint, and had a comically oversized mallet slung over her shoulder.

"I have to concur." Raven said, giving Jinx a once-over. "You make a convincing Harley Quinn."

"Thanks!" Jinx said. "I'm surprised I haven't seen more of her, not that anyone here besides me could pull off her special brand of chaotic energy."

"Of that, I have no doubt." Raven, as promised, still hadn't donned her own costume, as she was waiting until the actual party for the debut. As one might expect for a demon on Halloween, nearly everyone was wondering who she would be going as. Some speculated she would just go as herself, being the most terrifying entity in any room. "Where are Mammoth and Gizmo?"

"They're playing pool with Billy and See-more; they're dressed as Bane and Mr. Freeze."

"You've all decided to dress as enemies of Batman?" Raven asked. Though she would die before admitting it, the idea that they had left her out of their group costume idea stung a little, even though she'd already chosen her own costume.

"Yeah, but this was just coincidence; none of us knew what the others were going as until we'd already decided." Jinx said, not noticing Raven's posture relax just a fraction. "What do want to do until the party starts?"

"We could go see a movie." Raven offered.

"Yeah, no offense to your _wonderful_ suggestion, but I think I'm done with movie theatres for a while." Jinx said.

"Fair enough." Raven chuckled. "We could simply relax here; I think I'd like to learn how to play that game." She gestured to Mammoth and Gizmo again.

"Alright." Jinx agreed. "I'll teach you how to play like a pro in no time."

* * *

As six o'clock rolled around, the students all began heading for the gym; eager to start one of HIVE's two real parties it threw annually. Aside from the staff, and those who had helped with decorations, everyone had been barred from entering the gym until now, in order to keep it a surprise, and the collective reaction was nothing if not 'surprise'.

There wasn't a single jaw that didn't hit the floor as everyone took in their surroundings. Even Jinx was still impressed once again as she walked in. All orthodox light sources had been forgone in favour of the jack-o-lanterns, now properly suspended throughout the air, as well as the bats and the lava-fall. There were two tables on either side of the room, each full to bursting with food and drinks, including one enormous candy bowl each, which most people went to immediately after getting over their shock.

It didn't go without notice, however, that one student in particular hadn't made an appearance, yet.

"You guys seen Raven?" Jinx asked Mammoth and Gizmo.

"Not recently." Gizmo said.

"Mm mm." Mammoth said, trying not to talk while eating. He finished what he had before continuing. "You guys did a hell of a job in here, though."

"Actually, this was all Rae." Jinx corrected. "I did most of the stuff in the halls, but it doesn't really compare to this."

"I'd have to agree." A voice Jinx really didn't want to hear sounded behind her. "Don't get me wrong, walking through the school alone is a pretty visceral experience, but this, this is somethin' else entirely."

"What do you want, Cryo?"

"Well, I did come over to see if Raven was around, but I see no harm in getting to know her teammates, as well."

"Trust me, I can think of plenty of reasons I don't want to get to know you." Jinx said. "Ya know, I don't think you really have the physique to pull off Superman."

"My thoughts exactly." A voice said behind Cryo.

"Oh my gods." Jinx said. "I was close."

"You were close." Raven agreed. "You simply guessed the wrong bat." Raven was, indeed, dressed as a member of the Bat-family, but it wasn't Batgirl; the specific insignia, the visible armour plating, heavy combat boots, and a glare that could melt reinforced titanium even without the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes could only belong to the patriarch of Gotham's resident group of vigilantes. And of course, being Raven, everything was as pitch black as all her other attire, as opposed to the Dark Knight's choice of slate grey.

"Well you certainly know how to make an entrance like the original." Cryo observed. "I'd say Jinx's comment about not filling the boots you wear applies to you, too, but you definitely don't need Batman's bulk to be just as intimidating."

"I'm aware of that." Raven said, her flat tone offset by the twin red lights shining from the eye holes in her cowl. "Would you mind going literally anywhere else? I'd like to enjoy my evening with my friends."

"Fine, fine." Cryo backed away, dissolving into the crowd.

"Well, as much of a creep as he is, at least he goes away when you tell him." Jinx said.

"Now if only he would stay away." Raven said, briefly wondering if it would be worth the repercussions to break the school's rather strict (in her opinion) rule against using psychic manipulation on other students.

"So, how come you know all about the JL, but you had no idea who Robin was?" Jinx asked.

"The few times I ever met with the Justice League was when they came to Hell on business for whatever reason; family was not a common subject of conversation."

"Makes sense to me." Mammoth said. "You guys see that?" He pointed over by one of the candy bowls.

"I see Melanie and Mr. Cell talking to a bald man in a hooded robe that I've never seen before." Raven remarked. "Is that significant?"

"The guy they're talking to is _Lex Luthor." _ Jinx explained. "He's one of the richest guys in the country; but what is he doing here?"

"Probably checking his 'investment'." Gizmo guessed. "He's the school's number one financial contributor, it'd make sense that he wanted to make sure everything's alright here."

"We should go say hello." Jinx suggested.

"Why?" Gizmo asked.

"Networking." Jinx said. "We're likely gonna meet a lot of powerful people in this line of work, and it's best to get in good with them early on."

"Well, usually I try to- oh, hey guys." Melanie greeted Jinx and her team as they came over, and introduced everyone.

"Ah, so these are the new recruits you've been telling me about?" Lex's voice was a deep baritone an octave or two below Mammoth's, delivered in an almost posh accent skirting the barrier between suave and snobby. "I've been looking forward to meeting you four."

"You sure you don't just mean her?" Gizmo pointed at Raven.

"On the contrary." Lex said. "Admittedly, she is the one that originally caught my interest, but I found myself quite fascinated with the rest of you as well the longer I observed your team. As a matter of fact, I'd like to extend to you an invitation for candidacy in the LexCorp private security force once you graduate."

"Wow." Jinx said, taking the card he handed to her. "Well, with all due respect, uh… sir, but I'm gonna have to decline. I appreciate the offer, believe me, but the whole reason I'm here is to get a foot in the door as a freelancer. Plus, I don't handle stagnation well; I need to be on the move."

"I suppose it's your choice. The offer stands, either way." He frowned, but didn't push the subject.

"May I ask who you're dressed as?" Raven asked, wanting to change the subject.

"It isn't obvious? I'm the Grim Reaper."

"That's a rather inaccurate portrayal." Raven stated bluntly. Shadows extended in her hand, and seconds later an image of a pale-skinned girl about seventeen stood in her palm. She was dressed in common gothic wear and held a black umbrella. _"This_ is Death."

Lex studied the figure with skepticism. "You're telling me you've met Death in person?"

"More or less." Raven said. "She is essentially omnipresent and nearly omnipotent, and is more than likely aware of this conversation right now." Lex looked around the room slowly, as if thinking he might actually spot her. "At any rate, your costume doesn't really fit the theme of this party, as she is neither a hero nor a villain."

"I always saw it as a matter of perspective." Lex said, not conceding the point, but not arguing further.

Anticipating an awkward silence, Melanie spoke up. "I'm glad you guys are here; I was going to wait until after the party, but the higher ups are getting a little impatient." Realizing they weren't alone, Melanie turned to Lex. "Um, Mr. Luthor, would you mind giving us a moment? Classified information, and all."

"Of course, of course." Lex stepped away, and Melanie looked back to the others.

"For the past two weeks, we've been gathering Intel on some… otherworldly activity on the south side of Jump."

"Otherworldly?" Jinx questioned. "Does that mean aliens or magic?"

"We believe it's a demon."

"Are they hoping we'll exorcize them?" Raven asked.

Melanie shook her head. "Technically, there's no contract, or even an official client; this is all within HIVE. Normally, Mr. Jacobs would handle this sort of job, as that's part of his official duties, but as you know, he's unavailable. Luckily, the school does keep something of an emergency fund for this kind of occasion." Looking directly at Raven now, she continued. "If you're not okay with this, feel free to say no."

"It shouldn't be a problem." Raven said. "Where exactly are we headed?"

* * *

"Are you sure we shouldn't have brought the guys with us?" Jinx asked, breaking the silence that had befallen the two of them on their search. "I mean, they are part of the team, and if we're gonna be dealing with demons in the future, they'll need the experience."

_"__If _we have further run ins with demonic entities, we can bring them along, but I want to know what kind of demons will likely be summoned in this city; I haven't quite gotten a feel for which way the spiritual energy flows here."

"I thought _I_ was team leader?" Jinx mock pouted.

"You are, but I'm the expert on this subject." Raven said without missing a beat. She stopped suddenly, then, and Jinx had to backtrack a few steps from having kept walking. "We're here."

"Yeah, no kidding." Jinx agreed. "This magic here is fuckin' palpable." Their apparent destination was an abandoned office building that looked ready to collapse in on itself. The magical energy around them was potent enough that the air shimmered in the corner of their eyes, and neither girl doubted that at least some of it was keeping the structure together.

The two of them entered the building tentatively, and nothing happened at first, but a few seconds later, Raven dropped from her position in the air, landing on all fours with a grunt that leveled out into a low growl. Jinx went to help her up, but Raven waved off her attempts. As she stood, a bead of sweat was visible on her jaw where the cowl of her costume didn't cover her face.

"What the hell was that?" Jinx asked concernedly.

"A spell designed to weaken demons." Raven said. "Luckily, it's been modified to target one in particular, or else the effects probably would have been worse. That being said, flight, teleportation, and most of my psychic abilities are currently out of the question."

"And I'm guessing the one it's actually intended for is gonna be someone pretty powerful to need a spell of this magnitude."

"Most likely." Raven said. "Though, there is a slight chance that whoever put this up is merely overcompensating."

"Not with my luck they won't." Jinx retorted. "We goin' up or down?" She asked as they came to the stairwell.

"Definitely down. The summoning occurred in the basement."

"Certainly more ostentatious than I would have figured." Jinx remarked. "Do you suppose that's it, Rae?"

"Yes, I do believe the glowing magic circle surrounded by pillars of light and housing a demon is what we're looking for."

"Who the fuck are you two?" The demon in question spoke up in a gravelly English accent. He wasn't especially large, even compared to Raven and Jinx, and he was more bird than humanoid, dark black feathers covering most of his body.

"Hello, Stolas." Raven greeted him.

"Lady Raven." Stolas nodded, as if he hadn't just spoken to her the way he had.

_"__Raven_ will do just fine." Raven corrected him.

"Hold up, _you're _Stolas?" Jinx questioned.

"The one and only." He bowed, or tried to, anyway, as much as he could move. "It's been a few decades since a human that didn't summon me recognized my name. Well, mostly human."

"What do you mean?" Jinx squinted her eyes.

"You gonna let me outta here or what?" He asked, ignoring her question. "I was in the middle of a rather interesting bit of history when I got pulled up here and asked for _dating advice _of all things."

"Could you describe the one who brought you here?" Raven asked.

"Love to, but he kept himself covered head to toe during our meeting."

"Wait, I thought you taught people about astronomy and poison and stuff like that." Jinx chimed in.

"It's been a few thousand years since I had a proper class." Stolas said. "I've had plenty of time to study other subjects, and if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to that studying."

"Very well." Raven said. She extended her arms, channeling magic into two of the four bright white pillars around the circle, overloading them to the point of bursting. She was sent flying into a wall, and again waved off Jinx when she tried to help her. "I'm going to rest here for a moment. Would you, ugh, my head… would you mind taking care of the other two?"

Jinx nodded, and copied what she saw Raven do, pushing her power into the white light. However, when these overloaded, they didn't explode, they simply dissipated, and Stolas seemingly followed suit.

"You'd think that a knowledge demon would know how to use manners." Jinx said, walking back over to Raven. "Can you even walk at this point?"

In lieu of a verbal answer, Raven grit her teeth and forced herself into her noticeably shaking legs, leaning against the wall for support.

"Yeah, this ain't gonna work." Jinx said. "We need to get you the hell outta here."

Raven nodded. "I'll recover much faster outside the-" At Raven's cut off, Jinx turned around to see what the problem was.

"Ah, shit."

**A/N: Sorry to everyone who wanted to see Jinx's plan go into action; this ended up being a lot longer than I thought.**

**The good news is, based on the responses to my last question, I will write the harem fic, but it needs to be fleshed out in order to do it any sort of justice.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Alright, kept it under a month, if only just... but here it is! I'm actually not sure how I feel about this one; it's slightly shorter than I would have liked, and there's some elements outside my norm, so I hope I presented it realistically enough.**

**RandomAnon: No worries, you pointed out a flaw in the story, and I'm thankful for that. I want this story to be as good as it can be.**

**Imouto's mad house: Yes, the harem fic will definitely be plot driven, but I'm actually not sure about explicit smut. I certainly _want_ to add it, but the problem is that whenever I've written that sort of thing in the past, it ended up being really cringey and/or unrealistic, and I need it to have a certain degree of class to be added in. I'll most likely go for a lime route, skirting around fine details and painting a scene with an overview.**

VIII

"Uh, so, this looks bad, huh?" Jinx pulled one of Raven's arms over her shoulders to better keep a hold of her. She needed to think of a way out of this; if it came down to a fight, with Raven being pretty much incapacitated, Jinx wasn't confident about her chances against her potential opponents.

"We came to investigate an enormous spike in dark magic." Batman said. "Then we come here to the epicenter only to find you holding a triple 'S' class demon and Trigon's own daughter; 'bad' is putting it mildly."

"Hold on, back it up." Jinx said. "Did you just say _Trigon _is Raven's dad?"

"Yes?" Zatanna answered uncertainly. "You had to have known that when you summoned her?"

"I didn't summon her." Jinx denied. "We've known each other for months!"

"Really?" Zatanna asked disbelievingly. "Care to explain what you're doing here, then?"

"I'm not at liberty to dispense that information." Jinx answered.

"Then we'll just have to take you in for questioning." Batman threatened, lowering his stance.

"You got a plan, Rae?" Jinx whispered. "'Cuz I'd like to keep my spine in one piece."

"There is one thing I can do, but it involves some… minor possession." Raven said nervously. "If I can… use you… as a… vessel, your strength should feed me enough for a quick jump."

"That sounds… not fun." Jinx grimaced. "But fighting Batman sounds like even less fun, so I guess go for it."

Raven nodded. "Just, don't fight it." Jinx felt Raven slip out of her grip, and in the next moment, she felt another presence in her mind. _"I need you to relax and give me control."_ Jinx complied, and everything went numb as Raven took over.

_"__This is a goddamn trip." _ Jinx said. _"Is it supposed to feel like this?"_

"…No, no, something isn't right." Raven's somewhat creaky tone sounded out of place coming from Jinx's vocal cords. "I need to get out; you need to push me out!" Batman started forward cautiously, but stopped when 'Jinx' started spasming.

_"__I can't! What the hell is going on?"_

"I don't-" Raven's reply was cut off when she started screaming at the top of her lungs. Pale hands flew up to a fuchsia covered scalp, fingers digging into the skull as she fell to her knees. Her eyes were flashing different colours, and an aura of black and pink swirled around her, both sides fighting for dominance as bolts of magic lashed out, shattering concrete wherever they struck.

Batman and Zatanna had taken cover at this point, trying to avoid being killed while they came up with a plan.

"Can you separate them?" Batman asked.

"I can try." Zatanna hopped out from their hiding spot, leaping and dodging to stay out of the path of the deadly magical missiles until she was close enough to cast a spell. _"Etarapes."_ When nothing happened, she tried another spell.

_"__Llepxe."_ No effect.

_"__Esufnu."_ Still nothing.

_"__Peels." _Seeing this as a lost cause, she quickly went back over to her partner for this mission. "Well, that was a waste of time."

"What now, then?"

"If you can get her unconscious, that should fix it." Zatanna suggested. Batman nodded, lobbing a knockout gas canister in Jinx's direction.

"That didn't work." Batman said after several seconds. "I'll have to get in closer." He jumped into the fray, and went to work dodging the now almost completely pink magical assault. Jinx was no longer screaming, and her fingers were digging handholds into the floor. Chunks of stone were raining down from the ceiling as the building got closer to caving in on itself.

Getting within arms' reach was the real challenge in this situation, but for someone like Batman, it proved little more than a minor inconvenience. Wasting no time, he quickly attached a device to the base of Jinx's skull and leapt back out of the way. Or rather, tried to, as a stray blast clipped him on his right arm, burning away the durable material of his suit and leaving harsh red spots along the skin.

There was a loud electronic whine, and blueish-white light joined the pink and what was left of the black as electricity surged into Jinx, eventually overpowering her and rendering her unconscious. At the same time, Raven was expelled from her body, landing twenty feet away, and with a single gasp of air, she too passed out.

* * *

"Any progress?" Superman asked.

"Nothin' yet." Flash said. "I think we might've finally found someone more stubborn than Bruce; he's been at it for two hours and hasn't gotten a thing out of her."

"That's surprising." Superman said. "Most folks don't last ten minutes when he interrogates them."

"I know, right?" Flash said. "Oh hey, he's comin' out. You think he gave up?"

"Seems that way." Superman agreed. Batman exited the interrogation room looking, to those who knew him well, frustrated. It wasn't a look he wore often, and Superman felt particularly sorry for any Gotham criminals in the near future; even with one good arm, no human in their right mind would want to fight an angry Batman.

"I'm heading back to Gotham." He said. "If someone _can _manage to get her to talk, keep me in the loop. I suggest Diana."

"Wonder Woman to interrogation room four." Superman said into his earpiece as they watched Batman stalk away irritably.

_"__Be there in just a little bit." _

"I think she's at lunch right now." Flash said. "I'm gonna go try in the meantime." He was sitting across from Jinx before Superman could say otherwise.

"Sup." Jinx greeted him.

"You're awfully… calm for someone who just caught the Bat-glare full force. How did you do that, by the way?"

"Exposure therapy." Jinx said. "No offense to the Bat; I'm sure he's made plenty of people piss themselves just by lookin' at 'em, but he's got nothin' on my friend Raven. Where're you guys keeping her, anyway?"

"Can't tell you that." Flash said. "Of course, that changes if you tell us what you two were doing at the source of a dark magic anomaly the likes of which a normal human could never hope to conjure."

"Sorry, that's classified information." Jinx said.

"We're the Justice League." Flash reminded her. "That term doesn't really apply to us unless we're the ones hiding something."

_"__Does today." _ Jinx argued in a sing-song tone.

"Listen kid." Flash was getting annoyed now. "I don't know if you're in some kind of gang or cult, but the readings we got from that location over the last fourteen days indicate something dangerous in the works. It wasn't just a summoning we found; there was evidence of chaos magic all over the place."

"Duh." Jinx said. "I don't know if they told you, but I kind of exploded back there."

Flash shook his head. "It wasn't just from yesterday; there was several days worth of layering."

"You guys do know I'm not the only person in the world who uses chaos magic, right?"

"But you are the only one we know of who doesn't live in hiding." Flash countered, then sighed. "You know, this could have been over already, and you could've been back home if you'd actually cooperate."

"Or, and hear me out, now," Jinx said. "you let us go because you have no proof we did anything that legally justifies being detained."

Flash rubbed circles on his temples and sighed again. "Okay, I can see why Batman gave up… and ya know what, same; I'm out."

"Aww, but we just got started." Jinx pouted.

"I'll take it from here, Flash."

"Oh, sweet." Jinx said with genuine excitement. "I'm a big fan, by the way."

"Thank you, Jinx." Wonder Woman said with a smile. "Flash, would you mind turning off the microphone?"

"Umm… okay?" Flash complied uncertainly. "How are we…" He started to object, but Wonder Woman's stern expression quickly shut him down. "Uh, never mind." Flash and Superman watched through the glass as Jinx and Wonder Woman talked. Jinx seemed much more open when it can to actually conversing, but there was a noticeable reservation in her body language.

After ten minutes of what appeared to be casual conversation, Wonder Woman came back out with Jinx in tow.

"Alright, now that we have that sorted out, would you mind telling me where her friend is?" Wonder Woman asked.

"She's in the med bay with Fate." Superman said. "Did you get the information we need?"

"I know enough to know we have to reason to keep her here." Wonder Woman answered.

"How did you know you wouldn't need to record her?" Flash asked.

"Call it woman's intuition." Diana said. "Could you take those cuffs off her?"

"Nah, it's cool." Jinx easily removed the power dampening restraints, to the shock of all three Leaguers. "Yeah, these things never last more than an hour or so with me; comes with the territory when you're constantly just bleeding off ambient bad luck."

"You are certainly full of surprises." Wonder Woman remarked. "Now let's go see your friend, shall we?"

* * *

"Stay right there." Dr. Fate told them before the group could cross the threshold of the infirmary. "She's not stable yet, and your magics mixing together now would end badly."

"What's wrong with her?" Jinx asked worriedly. From what she could see, Raven was floating a few inches above the bed as Fate treated her. She looked as she normally did, for the most part, but there was an ethereal quality to the outer edges of her still form. The air around her twisted and bent, making it seem as though reality itself were warping from her presence.

"From what I've been able to gather, her soul nearly dissolved when she tried to possess you in her weakened state." Fate said. "It seems that your body saw her as a foreign energy and tried to burn it out."

"So I almost killed her!?" Jinx exclaimed. Her horrified expression contrasted greatly with the arguably jovial demeanor that had been all the League members had seen of her so far.

"To put it bluntly, yes." Fate confirmed.

"Oh my gods." Jinx whispered, sliding to the floor against a wall.

"Thanks, Fate." Wonder Woman rolled her eyes.

"Just stating facts." He defended. Ignoring his momentary lapse in sympathy, Diana got down to eye level with Jinx, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Listen, Jinx; I know you blame yourself for what happened, and I understand; I've been there myself many times." She lifted Jinx's chin to look her in the eyes. "Neither of you could have guessed this would happen; you did what you felt was necessary at the time. Given the circumstances, I would likely have done the same."

"But what if she's mad at me?" Jinx asked. "What if she doesn't want to be around me anymore? What if she hates me?" The very idea of Raven wanting nothing to do with her sent a cold stab of pain through Jinx's chest.

"I don't think that will happen." Diana chuckled. "I've spoken to Raven on numerous occasions, and I can say with no small amount of confidence that she isn't the type to hold a grudge against someone for something that was beyond their control, especially when that someone is a close friend."

"Right, friends." Jinx said. She knew that was exactly what she was to Raven, but it didn't carry quite the correct connotation anymore; their dynamic had shifted at some point, and Jinx wasn't quite sure where it had settled. Chalking it up to guilt about what happened for now, Jinx stood uneasily, rubbing away the budding moisture at the corners of her eyes as she turned back to Dr. Fate. "Can you tell me how long she's gonna be like this?"

"She should wake up in an hour or two, and you can come in and see her, then." Fate said. "And she'll be ready to leave a soon as she feels up to it."

"You said my body saw her as a foreign energy, right?" Jinx questioned. "But aren't demon and chaos magic really similar? Shouldn't I have treated her as just more of the same?"

"Normally, yes." Fate agreed. "In most cases, chaos magic is essentially repurposed demon magic. Yours, however, is an entirely unique strain; it's something much more primal."

"That's cool, I guess." Jinx said. "But what does that mean for me?"

"For now, nothing." Fate said. "Functionally, it's still chaos magic; the only time you'd notice a difference would be if you fought another chaos mage."

"Guess I don't need to worry about it, then." Jinx said. "From what I know, we're not the most social bunch."

"That's an understatement." Fate said. "The last time two were even in the same city knowingly, they started the great fire of London."

Jinx sat down again, on a bench this time, setting her chin in her hand. "It's probably for the best I've never met any others, then."

"I strongly agree."

Jinx turned to face Wonder Woman again. "Is there someplace around here I can eat?"

"Sure thing." Diana said. "Could you two show her to the cafeteria?" She asked Superman and Flash. "I have something to discuss with Fate."

"Whoa." Jinx stopped on their way to the cafeteria when she passed by a floor-to-ceiling window, the curvature of the Earth clearly visible below. "You didn't tell me we were in the freaking Watchtower. Wait, why did you bring people you thought were super criminals to the Watchtower?"

"It was the only place we could get Raven the proper medical care for what happened." Superman explained. "And it ensured that if you _did_ pose a threat, we would have ample manpower to contain it."

"Seems pretty paranoid for a couple of teenagers."

"We don't take chances when it comes to someone on the level of Trigon." Superman said.

Jinx shrugged. "Still, kinda excessive."

At last, they came to a set of double doors that opened up into an area at least twice the size of HIVE's own lunchroom, and likely had ten times the funding. Various supers were milling about, stopping their conversations only to shoot Jinx a passing glance before quickly returning to their own business.

Even the food was far superior to the typical fare she was used to; there wasn't a single whiff of fast food or anything processed.

"Where do you guys get the money for stuff like this?" Jinx asked. "Is this where the peoples' tax dollars end up?"

"League secret." Superman said flatly. "But I can tell you it's nothing like that; we have to keep a balance in our affiliations with different countries in order to remain an independent organization and avoid any conflicts of interest."

Jinx examined a plate of pasta she couldn't name while she thought over his words. "Alright, I'll buy that." Picking a table at random, she sat down and continued. "Just out of curiosity, how does one go about joining the Justice League? Is there some kind of Junior League program or an internship or something?"

"Eh, there's no formal entrance method." Flash told her. "We mostly just recruit at our own discretion, why?"

"No real reason; I just like knowin' things." Jinx answered. "And any conversation's better than you two starin' at me like you think I'm gonna flip out and plunge this station out of orbit."

"Should that be a legitimate concern?" Superman asked seriously. "You already overloaded what was supposed to be an energy sink without even trying."

"Not likely." Jinx shrugged. "Without me guiding it, the most that'll probably happen is some loose bolts and maybe some lightbulbs popping. Also, I didn't overload those cuffs, they just malfunctioned."

"Does that mean you _could_ take us out of orbit if you tried?" Flash asked.

Jinx shrugged again. "Maybe; it would be one of the more impressive things I've ever done, but I know for a fact I can cause a tsunami if I try hard enough, so, ya know, interpret that how you want."

Conversation lulled after that, and the remainder of their meal was spent in relative peace, if not monotony, broken only when another Leaguer came over to talk to either Superman or Flash, while Jinx anxiously watched the clock until Dr. Fate came to them and said she could go see Raven.

* * *

"Were you planning to stand here indefinitely?" Jinx started at Wonder Woman's question, turning to face her with a slight blush. She'd been standing outside the infirmary door for several minutes when the Amazonian had spoken up.

"No, I just… ugh. I don't know, maybe; it'd be easier than the alternative."

"Perhaps." Diana granted. "But I think we can both figure out how far that's going to get you in this situation."

"I know, I know, I'm being ridiculous." Jinx admitted. "But why is this so hard? If it was anyone else, I'd have walked in there, made sure they knew it wasn't my fault, and been on my merry way. Why can't I do that now?"

"I don't think you're being ridiculous." Wonder Woman said. "You accidentally hurt someone you care about; it's perfectly natural to be nervous about confronting her."

Jinx audibly exhaled. "You're right. Again. I just need to bite the bullet and get it over with." Wonder Woman nodded, opening the door for her, but refrained from following inside.

"By the way, Batman says he'll be keeping an eye on Jump City." Diana said before closing the door.

_'Wonderful.'_

She found Raven sitting in the air, facing a window that either hadn't been there before, or had been overlooked in her emotional state.

"Hey." Jinx said quietly. "Can you believe they brought us here?" It sounded lame, even to Jinx, but she wasn't sure what else to say right then.

Raven didn't respond verbally, but the slight twitch of her shoulders told Jinx her words had at least been acknowledged.

"Listen I'm, sorry, about what happened. With the, possession…"

Raven turned to face her, and shook her head. "Not here; the walls have eyes and ears."

"Right." Jinx said. "Should we tell them we're leaving or…?"

"They'll figure it out soon enough."

* * *

Jinx had expected to reappear in their shared room, but evidently, Raven had other thoughts.

"A graveyard?" Jinx asked.

"A cemetery." Raven corrected. "It's only a graveyard if it's on church grounds."

"Sure." Jinx said. "So, about what happened… are you okay?"

Now Raven only looked confused. "I… I would have thought you'd be upset with me for not telling you who my father is. Are you alright with all this?"

"For not- Raven! You could've died! I almost killed you…" Jinx voice got very small, and she looked away, her cheeks a bit pinker than usual. Raven reached out to turn Jinx's gaze back to her, the hand on her chin sending an unfamiliar sensation through her nervous system.

"I seem to remember having a similar conversation after you met my brother." Raven smirked. "You've been through quite a bit these last few months, so I'll ask again: Are you okay?"

"I… I think so." Jinx said uncertainly. "It's kinda overwhelming to think about; I barely escaped arrest in the most crime-ridden city in America, I signed a blood contract with the daughter of Trigon the Terrible, I'm probably about to be involved in some magical secret society world domination plot whether I like it or not, I nearly vaporized my best friend, and I was arrested and interrogated by the Justice League. I just need everything to slow down for a second."

"I agree." Raven nodded. "You should know… the reason I didn't tell you about my father. Most people, when they find out, either start doing their best to get in my good graces, or are too paralyzed with fear to so much as look at me, and I didn't want that from you."

"I… okay, that's fair." Jinx ceded. "Y'know, they didn't even mention the theatre thing."

"We have the school's legal team to thank for that." Raven said. "That incident has been declared as self defense… loosely"

"That's good news." Jinx breathed out sharply. "Though from what you've told me, I'm surprised Zatanna didn't try to use it, anyway."

"It would certainly be fitting of her." The two of them shared a short laugh, and Jinx pulled out her communicator to check the time.

"It's a nice night." Jinx commented. "Sun's gonna rise in a couple hours, though. You think we should head back?"

"Not quite yet. Though we did send Stolas back to Hell, we technically don't have proof of who summoned him. I'd like to hold off on having to explain all of what's happened tonight for a little while longer."

"Yeah, that's gonna suck." Jinx agreed. "So, why a cemetery, specifically?"

Raven shrugged. "Excluding you, I feel more comfortable around the dead."

Jinx frowned concernedly. "Raven, are… are you homesick?"

Now it was Raven's turn to blush. "Um, minutely, yes."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"A few reasons." Raven said. "The foremost of which being the inevitable questioning from my parents. A few months may not be very long to beings whose lifespans reach near eternal, but it's still enough to be noticeable."

"I could go with you." Jinx suggested. "Y'know, for moral support."

"That is a terrible idea." Raven deadpanned. "I think you're forgetting, this is _Hell_ we're talking about; the land of fire, death and damnation. It's not a place any sane mortal should ever willingly go."

"Well, the jury's still out on my sanity." Jinx argued. "Besides, it's not like anything bad could happen to me if I stay near you."

"And how, pray tell, would I explain you to my father?" Raven challenged. "He despises chaos magic users, and would likely smite you just for bringing it into his domain."

"Fate said I'm different from other chaos mages." Jinx said. "I mean, you had to go through my brain just to know what I could do, right? Why wouldn't your dad be the same?"

And what's to stop him from simply doing the same?"

"Uhh…"

Raven sighed. "We'll have to figure it out later."

"Does that mean I can go, then?"

"Only if we can find a way to keep my father from killing you on sight." Raven said. "But I think our next move should be to enact your terrible plan."

"Unless you can think of something else." Jinx offered.

"Without access to Cryo's mind, I am, unfortunately, at a loss for other ideas."

"Honestly, I was hoping you'd have come up with another plan." Jinx admitted. "I'm not thrilled about the idea, either, but I guess it's settled then. Now we just need to wait for him to try his hand at asking you out again."

"At least he's trying to take it seriously." Raven said. "After getting advice on the subject, I should think his next attempt will at least be tolerable."

"Here's hopin'."

**A/N: Alright, this is what I was talking about. It got a little angsty (if it can be called that), especially toward the end, and angst is not my forte, but part of the reason I write fanfiction is to practice for when I eventually publish an original work, so I hope I did their interactions some modicum of justice.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Well, this author's note was going to be awkward to write no matter what, but anyway, I'm back! Sorry to keep everyone waiting...**

**A wild review appears!**

**Whyhow: Right, I only just now noticed that yours is from chapter 3. I hope it's improved at least a little by now, but I'm still finding my footing as a  
writer. Looking back, I can see what you mean, but I'd like to think I have a better idea of this story's pace now.**

**Rook's fanfiction: I'm really excited to hear that! I definitely want to keep reading _A Demon's Black Fire._ For the harem, right now, the only ones I ****can confirm are Jinx and Blackfire, though I can also say it won't be _just _Teen Titans characters.**

**Imouto's mad house: Thank you for the input! Your reviews have been super helpful and encouraging. Rest assured, I will absolutely attempt to get  
out of my writing comfort zone for those scenes, but no promises. I have actually tried my hand at writing lemons, and they were... really bad.**

**feral creature: Thank you, it's always nice to know I did better than I thought I did, lol**

IX

"Sooo, it's been a week, and we haven't seen Cryo, yet." Jinx broke the pervasive silence. "Y'think he's dead?"

"Unlikely." Raven answered. "That would be far too convenient. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say he's probably following Stolas' advice in trying to win my affections."

"And what exactly does that entail?"

Raven shrugged. "It depends on the individual; most go for some sort of display of skill and power to impress the object of their desire. However, given that I'm already aware of what he can do, he's going to have to get creative. Honestly, I'm not sure what he would… oh, well… there he is now." She gestured to the now open door to the lounge area where Cryo stood, looking much worse for wear. His undoubtedly expensive clothes were burnt and torn in several places, and the icy sheen of his hair was visibly duller.

"Damn, dude, what happened to you?" Jinx asked after he'd made his way over to them. She noticed he was keeping his hands behind him, and his gait was missing its usual determined idiosyncrasy.

Cryo cleared his throat, ignoring her in favour of Raven. "I realize that I've come across as just another ignorant mortal, so I hope you can forgive my failings up to now." He cleared his throat again, nervousness showing through. "I did some searching, and I learned that demons prefer to be approached with a token proving the, um, suitor's worth."

"Go on…" Raven prompted.

"Well, I don't have an unstoppable army or the ability to level cities with a thought, and I knew with your social standing among demons, I was going to have to do something a bit unorthodox for this to work." He brought his arms in front of him now, and in his hands was a small red winged lizard, roughly the size of an average house cat.

"Is that a dragon?" Jinx asked in shock.

"It's a Spire Drake." Raven said with muted surprise. "Technically, yes, it does fall under the draconic umbrella, but it's a different sub-class than true dragons. As its name suggests, they tend to make their homes as pests in towers and spires, and once they move in, they're nearly impossible to get rid of."

"And what sounds like the dragon version of a cockroach is supposed to impress royalty?"

"That's not quite correct." Cryo said. "Spire Drakes possess some of the most potent venom in the multiverse, and they're also unruly and aggressive to the point that most people just destroy the building they inhabit rather than try to get a handle on the situation."

"That's right," Raven agreed. "and for a mortal to have tamed one, even a metahuman mortal, _is _an authentic accomplishment."

"So does that mean it worked?" Cryo asked.

"You've earned your shot." Raven affirmed. "What did you have planned."

"How about we get something to eat?" Cryo suggested. "I think it'd be nice for us to get to know each other better."

"That's acceptable; where and when?"

"How about tomorrow at six, at this address." He hastily wrote on a slip of paper before handing it to her.

Raven nodded. "And what were you planning to do with the drake?"

"I, uh, hadn't quite decided yet." He admitted. "I have a few options, but I don't really have the means to keep her myself."

"Well, it would be a shame to let the work you put into taming her go to waste; I can take her off your hands if you'd like."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? She's still pretty hostile towards other people." Cryo's warning, while sensible, did nothing to dissuade Raven as she reached out with an open palm, waiting patiently for the little reptile to climb on. She ran up and perched on Raven's shoulder, just as calm and well behaved as she was with Cryo.

"You don't need to worry about her with me; all things born of Hell can sense the blood of Trigon, and it has a penchant for instilling docility in the less powerful beings… most of the time."

"That's, uh, that's good to know." Cryo said. "So, I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"I'll be there."

"Great, great; I'll just, see myself out, then." He awkwardly exited the room while the girls looked on, Jinx unimpressed, and Raven disinterested.

"So, was all that true, about the little dragon being a legit way to go about this?" Jinx asked. "Or did you just go along with it to make sure he didn't think you were givin' in too easy?"

"Oh, no, he genuinely earned his shot, at least according to the Underworld's customs. Taming a Spire Drake is no laughing matter, and I'm actually quite curious as to how he did it in the span of a week."

"Are you actually planning to keep her? I don't think this place allows pets unless they're essential to your ops."

"I'm not keeping her here." Raven clarified. "I'll be taking her back to Hell with us."

"Does that mean you found a way to keep your dad from frying me?"

"Not quite; I have the beginnings of an idea, but it needs a bit more thought."

"Ah, Raven, there you are." The simple statement surprised both girls, as neither had heard the voice's owner enter the room.

"Hello, Mr. Jacobs." Raven greeted. "I see you've returned unscathed from whatever venture called you away."

"My apologies for the long absence; we'll be able to resume class again tomorrow."

"I look forward to it." Raven nodded. "Jinx, do you still have that photo of the cult symbol?"

"Yep." Jinx pulled the photo up on her communicator and showed it to Mr. Jacobs. "Whaddya make'a that?"

"Hmm." He took the device and examined the picture for a grand total of five seconds before handing it back to Jinx. "I have no idea; I've never seen this symbol." He took out his pocket watch and checked the time before continuing. "Sorry I can't be of more help, but you know where to find me if you have any other questions."

"Well, thanks for tryin', anyway." Jinx said. Mr. Jacobs nodded and left without another word. "Guess we can't rely on him for all the answers."

"It's fine." Raven said. "I'm sure we'll get plenty of information soon enough after tomorrow."

* * *

"Are you sure this is all wholly necessary?" Raven asked. "This date wasn't made under Terran custom, you know?"

"I know." Jinx confirmed. "And yes, it's necessary; he may have asked you out like a demon, but it's still an Earth-style date. Now keep your eyes closed and hold still, this is the first time I've ever put makeup on someone with features like yours, and I want to make sure I get it right."

Raven gave a quick sigh, but did as asked, waiting for several more seconds while Jinx put on the finishing touches, turning around to face the vanity when she was finally given the word that she was done.

"Well, what do you think?" Jinx asked.

"I'm not entirely sure." Raven said. "I've never worn makeup before today."

"Why not? Are there no formal events in Hell?"

Raven shook her head. "It's not that, it's just that physical appearances aren't generally any demon's primary focus, except for succubi and incubi."

"Well, what about your parents? Your mom's gotta be some kind of attractive to draw the attention of a god, right?"

"My father is what you would call a 'special case'. He wasn't formed the way most demons were, and he's relatively young, being only about ten thousand years old, compared to others who have been around for several billion years. But yes, I do think most sentient beings would agree that 'beautiful' is a more than apt description for my mother, though she doesn't wear makeup either." Raven stood up and reached for her cloak, only to stop her hand halfway as she took in her full reflection.

Her choice of attire, while befitting of a casual date, looked fairly foreign on her person. She wouldn't be making herself look human as she normally would in public, and her typical casual wear was replaced with a pair of violet hi-top sneakers, black skinny jeans, and a dark purple top just formal enough to not be a t-shirt, while her hair hung behind her in an intricate braid thanks to her roommate.

"No hood?" Jinx asked, honestly surprised.

"Not tonight." Raven continued to look herself over, making sure nothing was out of place. After a satisfactory inspection, she waved a hand in the air, opening a rift to where she was temporarily keeping her new pet. The small pocket dimension held the essentials, enough to sustain the demonic reptile, but it wasn't suitable for anything long-term.

"Sooo… have you thought of a name for her yet?" Jinx asked when Raven closed the miniature portal.

"I've decided on Lilith."

"A role model of yours?" Jinx asked, only half-jokingly.

"Something like that; she was appointed by my father as a private tutor for me and my siblings."

"Interesting choice." Jinx remarked. "You think I could meet her when we go?"

"I don't see why not." Raven shrugged, looking around the room to ensure she was fully prepared. "Well, I suppose it's time to go."

"Yeah…" Neither of them were particularly thrilled about this plan, but gathering information on Cryo and his motives had become a priority. "Don't forget, if shit hits the fan, me and the boys'll be on standby just out of sight."

"I can only hope intervention isn't necessary."

"You and me both."

* * *

_"__Is this the correct location?"_ Raven thought, sending the question to Jinx. She was standing in a parking lot downtown. The sun had already set, but that suited her just fine. There were only two cars here, neither of any significant notability.

_"__It should be."_ Jinx responded. _"Does it match what's on the paper he gave you?"_

_"__I wish I could say for sure, but calligraphy isn't as easy for me as plain print, and the building's signage is all glowing cursive."_

_"__Wait, he writes in calligraphy? Weird. Anyway, let me Google it real quick; what name did he write?"_

_"__Hmm. L… Y… D… I… A… … Eight? Ah, no, S. Lydia's, apparently."_ Several seconds passed before Jinx answered.

_"__Yeah, Lydia's Café, downtown Jump. Not a bad place, from the looks of it. Hey, this mental link isn't permanent, is it?"_

_"__No." _Raven shook her head, then realized Jinx couldn't actually see her. _"I can dissolve it as soon as I'm done here. And don't worry about privacy, I can only hear what you intentionally communicate."_

Heading inside, it didn't escape her notice that the building was nearly entirely deserted, save for one person sat in a booth towards the back. With the ever-present icy mist emanating from atop his skull, it wasn't exactly a leap to assume it was her date.

The establishment's interior was fairly minimalist; generic decorations lined the walls, the color scheme was subdued, but not bland, and the lighting skirted the line between sufficient and harsh. All in all, it was another diner among the dozens of others across the city, and it would be more than adequate for the night's events.

"You find the place alright?" James asked as she sat down across from him. His outfit came from a seemingly similar mindset, consisting of a navy-blue polo, dark slacks, and casual dress shoes.

"Easily enough. Is there a particular reason you chose this location? It's not terribly interesting." Raven gestured with a look over their surroundings, catching the sight of the register girl, who promptly averted her gaze.

"Well, I didn't want anything too fancy for this, and Lydia's was the only casual place that would let me buy it out for the night." There was surprisingly no smugness behind his words; he wasn't bragging, just stating a fact.

The sound of someone clearing their throat drew the attention of both patrons. The same girl from the register, who was apparently also their waitress, stood by their table with a notepad. She had a nervous smile and a red tinge to her cheeks, clearly embarrassed about being caught staring.

"Are you ready to order?" Her voice was small, but steady.

"Can I get a medium rib-eye and an iced tea?"

"Okay, and for you?" She turned to Raven, but had trouble maintaining eye contact.

"I'll have the same, but don't cook it." The girl hurriedly wrote their orders down, quickly leaving them alone.

"I suppose I should be grateful for the afforded seclusion; humans can often be annoyingly fascinated with the supernatural." Raven picked their conversation back up.

"I know what you mean; being a meta comes with a lot of the same issues. Kinda makes me wonder, though…"

"Why I'm not disguising myself?" Raven guessed, receiving a nod. "Two reasons: I'd like to think of any amount of time spent with you as separate from time with my friends, and because if you expect to court a demon, you'll need to become accustomed to being seen with them."

"No problem for me." He acceded. "Just figured you'd see it as unwanted attention."

"It's not as if I'm not used to it. Or have you already forgotten who I am?"

"It's a little hard to forget that… I feel like your dad could pop up at any second and eviscerate me."

"I suppose that's a valid concern." Raven exhaled a single laugh. "Best not to openly show that if you ever _do_ meet him, though."

"Does that mean you see this progressing to that point, then?" James smirked.

"Not necessarily." Raven said. "There's a decent chance you'll end up there after death."

"And just what would lead you to be so certain I'm destined for damnation?"

"Statistics." She answered simply. "I won't go over all the details, but the afterlife of what humans know as the 'Abrahamic' religions have almost a complete monopoly on human souls. So, with a few rare exceptions, you're essentially guaranteed a spot in one of three realms, and I very much doubt your soul would qualify as pure or worthless, which basically leaves only one option."

Their conversation was halted once again by the arrival of their food. 'Stacy', as Raven had only just now paid attention to her name tag, set their plates down, muttering a quiet "enjoy your meal", and heading back to where she'd come from.

"You seem to be pretty knowledgeable about the selection process." James said, getting back on topic again.

"Well, in the unlikely event of my father's demise, I would be granted the mantle of Hell's ruler. As such, I'm expected to learn the 'ins and outs' of not only how _my_ dimension works, but also how we interact with other dimensions as well. Now, how about you; what's your story?"

"My story?" James took on an introspective expression. "Okay, my father got on good terms with Bruce Wayne pretty early on, and it got him a good job at Wayne Enterprises. He met my mother through work, and a few years later, I entered the picture. My education was nothing out of the ordinary, for the most part, other than a heavier focus on business and finance. That is, until my brother and I found out we were metas. Our parents reacted favourably, on a personal level."

Raven arched a few brows while she cut her food. "Personal, as opposed to…"

"My parents were opportunists, first and foremost. That's not to say they were neglectful or anything; they loved us just fine, but when they saw a chance to get someone else to train us in our abilities, abilities they themselves had no idea how to properly grasp the concept of, let alone teach us how to use, well, they didn't really care much about fine print in that situation. Next thing we knew, Erik and I were shipped off to I-can't-tell-you-where, doing I-can't-tell-you-what alongside thirty other kids just like us."

"It seems to have paid off." Raven noted. "Your combat performance is exceptional."

"I certainly can't deny that." James agreed. "Though, I also can't deny I'm a little bitter about being sent here immediately after getting out of there."

"That's understandable. What about your brother? What exactly was his issue with Jinx to begin with?"

"It wasn't really an issue with her, per se…" James said in slight embarrassment. "He doesn't really 'get' tact, I think he was just nervous because we got here not too long before your group. He probably assumed that picking on another, newer, student would lift some of the focus off of himself, especially after we beat the previously held record for the orientation trial. I could be wrong, though; I didn't ask his motivation, I just gave him a verbal thrashing for it."

"That you did." Raven nodded.

"Back to you, now. How does the heir to the red throne end up in a place like HIVE? And on a team with a chaos magic user, to boot."

"Magical business is hardly a topic fit for dinner conversation. Suffice it to say, I work to protect her for reasons that are irrelevant to you."

"Fair enough." James said. "How about something non-professional, then?"

"Such as?"

"Have you ever accidentally bitten your tongue?" That was unexpected, and actually managed to throw Raven for a loop. She blinked twice, then spoke.

"Once. I pierced through completely and nothing tasted right for a month afterword." She contemplated for a moment before asking her next question. "Have you and your brother ever had any awkward mishaps due to your conflicting powers?"

"A lot actually." James laughed. "If we're indoors and we start arguing for long enough, there's a good chance it'll start raining in whatever room we're in."

"Is that so?" Raven let out her own short chuckle.

"Yeah, it's led to a lot of mopping up for both of us. Let's see… ah! We also have to be extremely sure we keep our wardrobes separated, otherwise clothes end up either falling apart completely or just turning to ash."

"Has that happened often?"

"More so when we first discovered our powers, particularly before our parents started having everything made to resist temperature extremes."

"I can imagine the headache you gave them."

"Alright." James checked his watch. "Oh, guess we need to be finishing up here, they'll be closing soon. I have one last question, though."

"Okay."

"What's it actually like in Hell? On a, um, social, level. Tell me about demonic society."

"Very well. As you can probably well assume, your class in the world is determined by your strength, and class, in turn, determines how you will contribute. The more menial tasks are performed those with little power or little intelligence; waste removal, manual labor, and the like. These are creatures that an exceptionally athletic human could easily dispose of in a confrontation. Bureaucratic duties are fulfilled by mid-class demons, the kind you might hear a hunter tell of in recent quest. Things work slightly differently in army; any willing participant not happy with their current role can join, even the dead, with approval. Succubi and Incubi work outside the confines of this system; their duties are not affected by strength, and they may pass freely between Hell and Earth. Their job is to collect souls, which are used as currency, though not in the way you might think of it."

"I'll be honest, I sort of assumed things would be a little more chaotic, but that's really interesting. Is that all?"

"A summation of it." Raven gave a dismissive wave. "There are a few exceptions and outliers, finer details, and of course the royal family. Our job is… well, whatever we want. I believe we're out of time here, however."

"Right." He stood and straightened his outfit, Raven following suit. I think this went rather well; would you agree?"

"I have to admit, I would have trouble describing this evening as 'unpleasant'. I'd like to give you, er, call it a token of good faith."

"What is it?"

"Close your eyes." He did as asked, and Raven quickly floated up a few inches, lightly pressing her lips to his cheek, leaving a faint mark that glowed for just a couple of seconds before dimming and fading completely. "I should be going."

* * *

"Well, don't hold out on me." Jinx was practically bouncing. "Did you get it done?"

"Yes. I might not be able to get into his head, but I _can_ tap into his senses, at the very least."

"Why a kiss, though?" Mammoth asked. "Couldn't you plant the spell on him at any time?"

"It's a matter of intimacy." Raven answered. "The more physical the act, the deeper the magic is seeded; that's why deals are often made through intercourse."

"Magic is weird." Gizmo said. "So, what now?"

"Now," Raven said. "he's headed straight for a meeting with his cult."

* * *

**A/N: Other updates for this patch include:**

** 1\. Removing that awkward scene from chapter 6**

** 2\. Fixing a mistake where Raven was referred to as a half-demon instead of just a demon**

**Coming next update: **

**A new title (maybe). I've had a lot of time to think about it, and I don't really like the title for this story anymore. The problem is that I suck at coming up with new ones. All suggestions are welcome, or, if it's not a big deal to anyone else and I'm just overthinking it, let me know. Originally, it was going to be relevant more than once, and in fact, the original plan for this story would have had Raven be much more like a symbiote, but plans change, and I think this worked out pretty well. Though I would definitely be interested if someone did write that story...**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So I guess at this point, any pretense of schedule has pretty much gone out the window, so I'm just gonna roll with it right now and just try to do better where I can. Also, you may or may not have noticed that the title has in fact remained due to lack of demand for a change, which is fine with me. As long as you all are alright with it, it's alright with me. Anyway, review time!**

**clown2107: That's an interesting premise for a story, and definitely something I would check out.**

**amerdism: Thanks! Also, sorry I couldn't answer your question, but I'm writing these as I go, and so far, I've not been able to keep a consistent release schedule.**

**Imouto's mad house: You definitely hit the nail on the head. I've never really cared about socializing or relationships in general when it came to my own life, I just like reading them. And yeah, I'm probably not going to include explicit detail if I ever do write any lemons; the reader's imagination can be a helpful tool for a writer struggling with their weak points. But either way, anything like that is still a long way from having a place in this story, so there's a chance this answer could get a few tweaks by then.**

**X**

A feeling of intense nervousness came over James as he swiftly moved toward his goal, muddying the almost giddy sensation he'd been riding for the last few hours. He looked at his hands; sweat coated his palms, and the hairs on the back were stood straight up. Shoving them in his pockets, he slowed his pace, attempting to forcibly relax himself. It seemed to work, as fewer people were throwing their gazes in his direction. Not as few as he'd like, but that was just par for the course for metahumans.

At least the night was pleasant; the sky was devoid of cloud cover, and traffic was especially sparse. He took a few calming breaths to steady his heartbeat, though it failed to actually accomplish anything as he could still hear it pounding away in his ears.

The route he traveled was one he had long since memorized, and making sure he wasn't being followed was less him being legitimately paranoid and more along the lines of just going through the motions. As long as there were no obvious signs of a tail, that was good enough for him.

All appeared to be well, and before he even got to the end of the alley, he was already fumbling the key out of his pocket, nearly dropping it twice on the way. He took a minute or so to compose himself, and opened the entrance.

The familiar dark hallway stretched out before him, its gothic architecture, many branching paths, and nondescript doors now burned into his memory. Not many people were in the building this late, and the few that were paid him no mind. He had no problem answering in kind; these grunts were of no consequence to his goals.

Taking his time, Cryo made the, in his opinion, unnecessarily long journey to the specific door he had in mind. Sitting at the top of a flight of stairs spanning at least three floors and marked simply with the initials "MK", it was well regarded as the most imposing area in the entire complex. There was no doorknob, and it allowed him entrance as soon as he approached, leaving him no time to stall as he would have preferred.

The room beyond stood in stark contrast to everything outside it. It was, for all intents and purposes, an apartment, looking like the sort of thing you'd get just outside of the business district.

"Hello James." Sitting on a dark red sofa in the living room was an olive-skinned woman in her thirties. She was wearing a bathrobe and painting her toenails gold to match her fingers while the tv across from her silently played an episode from a cartoon that ended a few years after he was born. Her hair hung loose behind her, the same shade of gold as her nail polish along with her eyes, which were bisected by a vertical pupil. She swept her hand over the space. "Have a seat."

He complied hesitantly, selecting one of the living chairs next to the couch, and saying nothing as he waited for her to speak. Although, she didn't seem entirely eager to start, as she merely put a hand to her chin, staring at him for a prolonged period in which he tried to both avoid eye contact and not look like he was avoiding eye contact.

"Have you been deliberately trying to stay away from me?" There was no sign of hostility in her tone, but her eyes told a different story. In that moment, they much more closely resembled the predator that was usually brought to mind on meeting their golden gaze, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"What, um," he attempted to swallow the lump in his throat. "what would make you think that?"

"You've been skirting my presence for quite some time, now." She placed the cap back on the small cosmetic bottle and leaned forward, while Cryo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "They say you come in, you report your progress, and then immediately leave; you wouldn't even talk to me until I scheduled this appointment personally. Now, why might that be?"

"I, er, didn't want to waste anyone's time. It didn't seem worth bothering you over something as trivial as a sitrep."

"Oh, believe me, there's nothing trivial to what we're doing, no matter how small. Every action we take bears relevance for this operation, and you," she pointed at him, circling the finger through the air. "are a keystone figure, my boy. So, tell me, how did your little 'date' go?"

"Well, we, um," he gulped again. "we talked over dinner, shared some things about ourselves and our respective pasts, and ended the evening on a considerably positive note."

"That's all? You two said your goodbyes, and went your separate ways? She didn't even give you a kiss goodnight?"

"No, ma'am." He answered quickly.

"Well, I suppose she gets her lack of manners from her father." She raised a glowing gold hand in the direction of a small wooden cupboard near where the tv sat, encasing it in the same magic, and Cryo watched in silence as it opened, letting a neon green crystalline bottle and a matching glass make their way to her waiting fingers of their own accord, and she poured herself a fair amount of the expensive looking beverage. "You're so… nervous, tonight, James. Uncharacteristically so. Is there a problem?"

"No, not, um, not any that I can think of."

"Are you sure? Because in my experience, when someone is nervous, the driving factor is fear in some form or another. Fear of consequences, of retribution. Or, as is often the case with mortals, fear may be a force much more… instinctual." The end of her sentence was accentuated by a brief flash of aureate light from her eyes. "Do you fear me, James?"

He cleared his throat, responding in an even tone. "I think, anyone with a proper sense of self-preservation would fear you, Miss Kane."

"You may be right." She said, sitting back. "I suppose I can give you the benefit of the doubt for now. After all, you've given me no reason to suspect you of any sort of dissidence, have you?" She swirled her drink a few times before downing what was left. "But do be sure to keep it that way; I'd hate to have to dispose of one of my most valuable assets, understand?"

Cryo nodded, not entirely trusting himself to speak just then.

"Good, then that will be all. I have another visitor stopping by soon."

"Yes ma'am." He said, silently thankful he'd been able to keep his voice steady. He was more than ready to get out of there, wasting no time in travelling swiftly back down the stairs and through the labyrinthine hallways to the entrance once again. Absently, he wondered who that next "visitor" might have been, as he'd seen no one heading in the direction he'd just come from, but discarded the thought, as the building was decently large, and converging paths were common enough.

Finally outside once again, he took several deep breaths, letting his heart settle back to a more normal rhythm before walking back to the school.

* * *

A few miles away, Raven dropped out of her meditative state, vision returning to her own eyes and settling on the expectant faces of her friends.

"So do we know what he's plannin' or what?" Gizmo asked.

Raven shook her head. "There was… frustratingly little information revealed." She recounted everything she'd seen. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, though. There wasn't any real reason for them to lay out the details of whatever they're planning with just the two of them there."

"There's always next time, right?" Mammoth suggested.

"Unfortunately, no. The longer I leave the spell active, the more likely it is to be discovered, especially if he's spending time around that woman."

"Could you feel how powerful she was?" Jinx asked.

"Not as well as if I'd been there myself, but I could tell it wouldn't take her very long, even if she's not actively looking for it. For the sake of staying under her radar, it would be better to dispel it… unless you believe it's better to take that risk?" Raven looked to Jinx.

"No, I agree. If we're found out, it would make things way more complicated than I'm willing to deal with right now." Raven nodded and quickly released her magic. "Anyway, I consider this mission a semi-success; we might not have gotten all that we wanted, but we did learn that Cryo is not the mastermind here, and we know something about the person he works for. Giz, I want you to start researching this 'Kane' lady asap."

* * *

"Hey Rae." Jinx said from her place on the bed. "How's that plan to get me past your dad goin'? Any progress?"

Raven looked up from the cellphone they'd finally gotten around to getting her. "Hm? Oh, well, it's really more of a process I would perform than a strategic plan, and the aftereffects won't exactly be pleasant. I was actually hoping to think of something else, but I've been continuously coming up short."

"Okay, see, I wanna ask 'how bad can it be?' but at this point, that sounds more like a challenge than a question."

"I'm inclined to agree with that sentiment, but it will largely depend on how you feel about letting me in your head."

"How far in are we talkin'?"

"Enough to familiarize myself with the integral parts of your being."

"Uh, isn't that kinda dangerous? I mean, the last time we did something like this…"

"This will turn out differently." Raven assured her. "This isn't possession; our souls won't be interacting. And anyway, I was severely weakened then. This will be more of an… alternate entrance for me to find what I'm looking for."

"Which is?"

"I'm going to try to locate the spark of your magic."

"Is that…? I mean, would I even have one? My magic comes from my meta-gene."

"That would be rather unprecedented. As far as I'm aware, any non-demon with innate magical abilities has a spark, though your genes may have been the thing to ignite it."

"Okay, so, say you do find this thing; what happens next?"

"Ideally, I'm hoping to temporarily suppress it, and cover its presence with my own magic."

"Now when you say suppress…"

"It will effectively cut you off from your power. It will still be there; you just won't be able to access it. More importantly, though, it will be undetectable from the outside."

"Even from a demon god?" Jinx raised an eyebrow.

"I'm certain of it. Even if my father were to inspect you deeper than surface level ability, all he would find is influence of my own magic."

"And the fact that we have a contract won't affect this?"

"I see no reason it would; our binding only covers what we offer the other as part of the deal. And anyway, individual demonic contracts are a private business, and my father respects this."

"Alright, so where do these 'unpleasant side effects' come in?"

"You'll have a pronounced feeling of emptiness inside you, a constant nagging sensation telling you something is missing. It won't be debilitating, but I can't imagine feeling that level of having lost a part of yourself will be fun. Of course, this is all only if you agree to do this. If you're not okay with it, I'll think of something else."

"I'm sure I can handle it. What do we need to do?"

"First, I need to ensure we're not disturbed." Raven turned to the door and extended a hand, letting her power flow over its surface. When she was done, there wasn't any visible change to it, but Jinx could feel the magic now coating it.

"Distractor spell?" Jinx asked, scooting to the edge of the bed.

Raven nodded. "It should be sufficient to deter most beings here. Next, I need you to relax, and drop your mental guard; I can't force my way in, and I don't want to try. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, what's next?"

"Nothing on your part; just keep yourself mostly placid, and don't fight me off. This will be much the same as when I watched Cryo earlier."

Jinx nodded, closing her eyes and settling herself in anticipation. It didn't take long to feel something prodding at her psyche, and she quickly allowed the intrusion. When she opened her eyes again, Raven was floating motionless in front of her, and her eyes were solid black. Jinx could feel her friend's presence and, not having much else to do, she decided to lie back down and scroll through social media while she waited for Raven to reemerge.

* * *

Even knowing Jinx as well as she did, Raven still wasn't quite sure what to expect from a physical representation of her mind. A predominance of the color pink felt like a given, but other than that, she was going in blind.

After getting her bearings, the first thing that came to mind was that this world seemed oddly tranquil, serene, even. She was currently in a clearing, surrounded by trees that looked like they had cotton candy for leaves, under a sky that was thankfully a more muted shade. The ground, as far as she could see, was of a normal coloration, if a bit brighter than it should have been, ironically looking much more out of place than everything else here.

She attempted to get an aerial view to try and find a discernable path, but that idea was shot down as her feet refused to leave the ground. Likewise, none of her other magical abilities were functioning, though she still had her claws, and she knew her strength hadn't diminished. She couldn't remember the last time she'd actually had to rely on her physical senses for navigation, and was having a difficult time deciding which way to go. With nothing telling her she should do otherwise, she picked a random direction and started walking.

It felt like more than an hour had passed before she saw anything other than more forest. Moving through a markedly thick cluster of trees, a campsite came into view. It was well furnished and looked comfortably livable, but still very much kept the spirit of living outdoors, albeit with an oversaturated colour palette. A ring of violet stones roughly thirty feet in diameter surrounded a sizable tent, the softly glowing remains of a campfire, complete with a spit roast, along with a number of other amenities. The whole thing sat near the bank of an extremely slow-moving river, which was a shade of pink so brilliantly deep, Raven was at a loss for a proper comparison.

Taking her eyes off of the nauseating body of definitely-not-water, she decided to investigate the campsite, but only made it a few steps before her attention was dragged back to the river by a familiar voice calling to her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Poking her head just above the surface, Jinx met Raven's questioning gaze. "There's a metric fuckload of wards and traps around my camp. Gimme a sec; I'll come let you through."

Raven followed her advice, watching as her friend, or some part of her, at least, swam to the river's edge and climbed out, but quickly turned away as soon as Jinx stood up.

"I apologize, I didn't realize you were, um..." Raven's face felt unusually warm; she and the real Jinx gave each other plenty of privacy when needed, so she wasn't quite sure how she should react to seeing her so nonchalantly exposing herself.

"Huh?" Jinx looked puzzled for a moment, before looking down and laughing. "Right, my bad. Most of the time, I don't gotta worry about that sort of thing, with just me and the other aspects. Visitors are pretty rare here, as I'm sure you can guess... Oh, you can look now."

When Raven turned around again, Jinx was wearing a camouflage version of her usual outfit. Her hair was noticeably shorter than in the real world and ended just below her ears, and she had more visible muscle tone. She quickly jogged up from the river bank and started leading Raven through the apparent magical defenses, waving a hand here and there along the way. The walk was quiet, and Raven was thankful for that, as it gave her time to try and get her mind off of what she had just seen and get back to the task at hand. She waited until they'd actually entered the tent, which was bigger inside than it logically should have been, to break the silence.

"You said you were an aspect?"

"Yep!" Jinx smiled. "I represent her more primal tendencies; stuff like her attunement to nature and her willingness to throwdown with pretty much anyone."

"She has quite a lot of self-control, then, if that's the case. I assume you already know why I'm here?"

"Yeah, but I don't know how you plan to do that with no magic."

"Well, it certainly wasn't part of the plan at the start. I'll simply have to cross that bridge when I get to it."

"Speaking of bridges," Jinx said. "you're gonna need one to get where you're goin'."

"You know where the spark is?"

"I can't give you a map, or even an exact location, if that's what you're hoping for. All I can tell you is that she's on the other side of the river, and I think it goes without saying that trying to swim wouldn't end well for you."

"'She'? The spark is sentient?"

"Maybe." Jinx shrugged. "She's as aware as any of the rest of us in here, though she's definitely different, too. You'll see what I mean when you meet her."

"I suppose asking for a guide is out of the question?"

"Sorry, I don't really get along with the others; they don't appreciate my lifestyle."

"Fair enough. Could you give me an approximate direction, or at least tell me what I'm supposed to be looking for? A lot of this is already not making sense; I hadn't expected to find an entire landscape in here."

"Hmm." Jinx tapped her chin in thought. "Well, North and South and all that don't really exist here. Honestly, the best I can give you is just to follow the river to find a way across, then you're looking for this big ass castle, and that's where she lives."

"It's a step up from wandering blind, at least." Raven said. "I should get moving; I'd like to get back to the outside world as quickly as possible."

"Well good luck with that." Jinx smiled as she watched Raven leave. "Oh, and watch out for jaguars!"

* * *

Once again, Raven ended up walking for far longer than was convenient before she saw any indication that she was making progress.

_"Then again,"_ she thought. _"I have no idea if my sense of time is even accurate in this place."_

What she saw ahead was equal parts relieving and suspicious: a stone bridge began assembling itself across the river, while a sign-post sprouted from the ground on the other side, just before a fork in a now-existent path. Not waiting for the autonomous construction to fully finish, Raven deftly cleared the remaining gaps in the masonry to hopefully get a concrete sense of direction.

The sign had two arrows, pointing either direction. One of them read: _Path of Memories_, which led through another forest, though this one was comprised of overgrown dandelions. The other way was marked: _Path of Emotions_, going through a grove of enormous sunflowers.

It seemed she had a dilemma; she wasn't here to invade the private areas of Jinx's mind, but a choice had to be made. She debated with herself for a few moments, trying to decide which was more intrusive, eventually deciding that the emotional route would be the lesser of two evils.

Her first step into the thick of the flowers had an interesting effect. A wave of blue emanated from the spot where her boot made contact with the ground, washing over the environment and staining everything in a rich aqua hue that enveloped Raven in a sense of calm. She took a few more steps in, and the same thing happened again, but with red, now. This was a much harsher shift in tone, especially compared to the serenity inspired by the previous palette. She could feel herself getting more agitated by the second, her natural destructive tendencies rising to the surface unbidden, but she reigned them in for Jinx's sake; it wouldn't do to go on a rampage in here.

So it went on for several more rotations, switching back and forth between red and blue, rage and peace. It was giving her a headache, and she was beginning to wonder whether she should have chosen the other path. Her musings were cut short when she noticed something disturbing the flora up ahead. She approached the moving section of stems, wary of the Jinx-copy's warning. Whatever it was, it was getting closer, and Raven readied herself for an attack. However, what actually appeared, while certainly sharing characteristics, was not, in fact, an apex predator.

This version of Jinx, though clearly still a lookalike, had a decidedly different approach to her style than the previous one she'd met. She was fully dressed, much to Raven's relief, but she also had an additional article of clothing of particular interest: a cloak that looked very much like her own. The rest of her appearance was identical to the real Jinx, with the exception of her hair and eyes, which matched the current red around them.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing? Are you the one that's been fuckin' up the flow around here?!" Her outburst surprised Raven; she'd never seen her friend looking this genuinely infuriated, and she involuntarily took a step backwards before getting control of herself.

"If you're referring to these... emotional waves being produced, then yes, that was me, but it was not my intention when coming here." Raven stood up straight as she defended herself, but it didn't have quite the effect she was going for without her demonic abilities. She was painfully aware that she was somewhat lacking in the height department, but it wasn't a problem when she could easily float at eye level or higher and command living darkness to do her bidding.

Right now, though, Jinx was very obviously not intimidated. She stared at Raven for a few more seconds before her expression did a one-eighty, and she was suddenly grinning. At the same time, her color scheme shifted to her normal pink, with their surroundings quick to follow.

"Well, as long as it was an accident, I guess it's okay. So, where are you headed? No, wait, I already know the answer to that. How ya doin' today?"

"I'm fine, I suppose. May I ask why you're wearing that?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean the cloak." She spread the piece of apparel like wings. "We all got one, like, a month after we met you. The only one who doesn't wear it is Nature Girl back there. You know, this thing is suuuper comfortable, what's it made of?"

"Mine was a gift from Arachne for my thirteenth birthday; she spun it from her own silk."

"Magic spider silk? So does that mean it's bulletproof?"

"Among other things." Raven affirmed. "Could you tell me if I'm going the right way?"

"To the castle? Uh, let me think..." She took on a contemplative look, and all the pink turned to white. "Oh, right, right, right; she moves her place around, like, all the time, so it's largely a matter of chance if you wanna meet her."

"So you're saying there's no telling how long I might have to spend in here?"

"Not necessarily. We can usually feel it when she moves, and she hasn't done it once since you got here, not to mention, she called all her pets back to her as well."

"Her pets? The jaguars I was told about?"

"Yeah, those. Normally they'd be all over the place, but I haven't seen one all day."

"I assume she also knows why I'm here, just as the rest of you do?"

"I don't see why she wouldn't. She's more powerful than any aspect, and I don't think Jinx is the only thing she has in her, either."

"What do you mean by that? Is she a product of some outside influence?"

"I don't know, I don't think she was always the way she is, but I can't... really... …"

"Are you alright?" Raven asked when Jinx remained silent after trailing off.

"Huh? Oh, sorry." She laughed and shook her head, the world once again turning pink. "Things get kinda... weird, if I try to remember too far back."

"Is that so? I should speak with Jinx about that when I leave."

"Probably. Anyway, I'm sure she's already expecting you, so just keep going and you should get there soon enough."

"I suppose that will have to do." Raven sighed. "Thank you. You've been helpful, and have given me some unexpected information."

"Bye." Jinx waved.

* * *

The next, (and hopefully final), stretch of her journey, as expected, was uneventful, but it didn't feel as lengthy or tedious as before, now that she knew it was only a matter of time before she reached her goal. The exit of the "forest" opened up into an empty field, and she was treated to a similar sight looking back, as everything she'd just gone through had disappeared. Turning ahead once more, a new landmark had made itself visible.

A skyscraper-esque column of stone now jutted from the ground a few hundred feet in front of her. From where she stood, she saw no sign of any conventional way of getting to the top, and the cliff face looked fairly sheer, even from a distance.

She examined the tower, trying to roughly gauge its height. It looked to be around a thousand feet or so as far as she could tell, and she looked at her hands. This climb surely wouldn't be good for her claws, especially if she had to dig her own handholds, but at least any superficial damage would be gone as soon as she left this place.

This had turned out to be a far more demanding task than she'd assumed it would be, but it would be worth it for the end result. Speaking to her parents was going to be unavoidably uncomfortable after being gone for months, but hopefully she could smooth over their worries and get a more permanent pass to this plane of reality. Or, failing that, Raven was confident she could, at the very least, buy herself some time to _get_ to that point, and maybe even get them to be okay with her spending the majority of her time on Earth with Jinx.

And if not... Well, Raven would worry about that when the time came.

* * *

**A/N: kotomi101: Sorry, both for making you wait until the bottom to get your review answered, to avoid spoiling the chapter, and also because I know this probably was not as much progression in their relationship as you were hoping for, but I promise we'll be getting there soon.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Surprise! I know I haven't been great about updates recently, and not just on this story, but I managed to get the lead out for this fic's first anniversary.**

**Reviews!**

**Kurayamikara: Thanks! I always appreciate another reader.**

**OblivionKisame: Yes, while she certainly _could_ attempt to torture the information out of him, but there are several factors preventing her from just slaughtering anyone who inconveniences her. One of the harder things about writing an overpowered character, especially one whose moral code is not very strict, is imposing realistic reasons why they can't just wave their hand and solve all their problems, and I feel like I've done at least a decent job of that.**

**kotomi101: Okay, that's my bad for... I guess it would be, for lack of a better term, misreading the situation. Sorry, I'm not great at articulating my personal thoughts, in fact these author's notes regularly take upwards of fifteen minutes to write, but it's good to know everyone is still on the same page.**

XI

It turned out Raven was right about how she would have to ascend this obelisk; natural grips were few and far between, and even those only supported the tips of her fingers. She was about halfway up at this point, wishing she had had a different plan to get Jinx under her father's radar.

Well, there was nothing to be done about it now, anyway; she'd already made it this far, no point in dwelling on "what-ifs".

Her idle mind wondered about her parents' potential responses after finding out what she'd been up to. Mother would almost undoubtedly be the one delivering the lecture, and it would be a hefty one that at least one of her siblings will end up going on about for far longer than anyone wants to hear. Father was less predictable, and his actual reaction was susceptible to influence from a number of factors, and she could only hope he was in a good mood at the time.

Any further introspection was halted when her hand found purchase on solid ground. Quickly hauling herself up the remaining distance, she stood and gave her new surroundings a once-over.

_"This certainly eliminates any room for possible doubts, though it begs the question of why so many are needed."_ Raven could count at least twenty Jaguars in different spots around the area of the castle that she could see. Despite easily noticing her less than graceful entrance, none of them made any move to approach her. Taking that as good a sign as any that she was welcome to continue, she did just that, walking at a brisk pace up to a pair of heavy stone doors.

The interior of the building matched the outside perfectly, leading to an overall generic feel that would have blended seamlessly into any medieval set piece. Exploring the entrance hall, she couldn't help but think that a place like this stood in severe contrast to the rest of Jinx's mind, only adding to her curiosity over this "sentient spark".

_"Speaking of which..."_ Raven stopped her observations when she felt a new presence enter the foyer behind her. "You're proving to be quite the mystery so far. Tell me, how did you come to be this..." She trailed off after seeing her host's surprising appearance. "It seems they weren't exaggerating when they said you were different."

Really, it was just one difference, but it was a jarring one. For the most part, she looked nearly identical to her fellow mindscape residents in all other regards, but she was visibly older, by at least a decade. She was also more... full-figured, a detail that caught Raven's attention in a way she hadn't experienced before.

It was no secret to anyone that knew Raven that she wasn't fond of other people, or rather just other living beings in general, but there was something different about seeing someone she was so close to looking this... mature. It was as if she was seeing her in a new light, and it struck her as... honestly, she wasn't sure how to feel about it, she'd never considered it before.

It wasn't as though it would be frowned upon, either by her family or her people; she simply hadn't put much thought into relationships, and basically none at all the thought of one with another woman, especially a human. But the idea had been seeded now, and she would have to find time to play with it later; for now, she had a job to do.

"Are you done staring at me?" She asked, giving a small laugh that only further distracted Raven, who shook her head, trying to refocus.

"Sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment. You know, you remind me of someone, and not just Jinx. Your facial features are very familiar to me in a way I can't quite pin down."

"So, did you come here for a reason, or did you just want to continue studying me? Because I think Jinx might start getting impatient soon."

"A fair point." Raven nodded. "I've also been told you're more powerful than the others that live here; does that mean you're the one responsible for the loss of my magic?"

"Oh, yeah, that. Just a little safeguard I implemented as a precaution. Let me take care of the for you." Her hands lit up in pink, and she cupped Raven's cheeks, causing a blush to spread at the point of contact. It only continued to grow as her face got closer and closer, where she placed a quick kiss on Raven's forehead.

Raven now felt like all her blood had migrated to her face, and did her best get her mind back on track. She pulled her hood farther forward and cleared her throat before speaking.

"Thank you. You said you were the one to put that safeguard in place? Does that mean you can act independent of Jinx's will?"

"Hardly. I'm still an inherent part of Jinx, which means my will _is_ her will, just on a subconscious level."

"Alright. Are you opposed to what I'm going to do?"

"Well I'm not thrilled about the idea." She deadpanned. "But Jinx is willing, so I'm kinda on board by default."

Raven nodded, calling her power forth and speaking in her native tongue while making precise movements in the air. Shadows started bending in her direction, and a few seconds later, ethereal black rings appeared on the older woman's wrists. They could easily have passed as bracelets if not for the obvious magic about them. Immediately, their effect made itself known in the dulling of their wearer's coloration, her hair and eyes getting much paler.

"Hmm, interesting..." She tried testing them, attempting to make... something happen, though Raven had no idea what, as nothing was produced, unsurprisingly.

"Am I correct in assuming you won't tell me who else's influence resides in you?"

She laid a hand on her chest. "And just what makes you think there's anyone else in here to begin with?"

"I'm good at reading people, even people who aren't real people." Raven stated confidently. "And you're much more physically affectionate than Jinx."

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but that's not something, I can tell you. This particular surprise is better left unspoiled."

Raven narrowed her eyes. "The enigmatic approach to withholding information is rather played out, don't you think? But if you're going to keep it to yourself, then we have no further business together." A shrug and a smile were all she got in reply, so she wasted no time in recalling herself back to her body.

* * *

"Oh, you're back." Jinx was quick to take notice when she resurfaced.

"And your eyes are grey."

"Really?" Jinx pulled up her phone's camera and examined herself. "Huh, would ya look at that? Guess it's safe to assume it worked, then. Kinda weird lookin', though." That wasn't the only change, however. Her hair had kept its vibrancy, but had lost its natural horned shape, and now hung loose around her shoulders. "Damn, it's been a long time since I've seen my hair down."

"How do you feel?"

"Eh, pretty much how you said; kinda empty inside, and a little cold, I guess, but not much else. I did have some pretty wild mood swings while you were in there, though; what happened?"

"I, er, met some facets of your person, and I spoke to your spark just before I returned."

"Facets? Like, personifications, or were they more abstract?"

"The individual aspects were mostly identical to you in appearance, however, your spark appeared to be a good bit older older than the rest."

"Seriously? Well did she really look any different?"

"No, um, not to a significant degree." Raven coughed and looked away; she knew it had to be said, but it was going to be uncomfortable for both of them no matter how she phrased it.

"Raven?" Jinx noticed her friend's behavior and took on a serious tone, a rarity for her. "What did you see in there?"

"Well... one of the aspects I met was the personification of your affinity for nature."

"Alright, and?"

"She..." Raven took a breath. "She had a very _natural_ way of living, in every sense of the word..."

"What do you...? Oh... Oohhh!" Jinx's eyes went wide in realization. "So, you... _saw_ her?"

"...Yes."

"Which means, you've seen _me_."

"Yes."

"Oh... Well, this is awkward... Hey, uh, we don't need to leave immediately, right? Like, this can wait until tomorrow, can't it?"

"That's fine." Raven said, happy to change the subject. "I'll need to let Melanie know we're going to be gone for an extended period, anyway." She considered leaving to do that immediately, but she knew she wasn't quite done, yet. "There is one other thing you should know."

"Is it more embarrassing than you seeing me naked?"

"No, it's... more potentially concerning. I discovered while I was in there that you have some residual influence attached to your magic."

"Do you know who it's from?"

"No, she refused to tell me, but she did say that she could act somewhat outside your conscious will. There was also the fact that your emotional aspect was unable to recall past a certain point in your history."

"Right, that... doesn't really surprise me..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't really, uh, have any memories from before I turned nine."

"None at all?"

"Nope. The earliest thing I can remember is waking up on a cruise ship headed for New York. Other than that, I don't know anything about my life before. I mean, I only know I'm from India on account of the fact that I woke up only speaking Hindi."

"You're from India? That's... surprising."

"Yeah, I know, everyone's always shocked when they hear it. Anyway, there was, luckily, another passenger who volunteered to be my translator for the rest of the trip, and when we docked, the state had me in a few different group homes for, like, two months before I was picked up by a Dark Way Prep recruiter. That school was where I met Mike and Baran, and for a few years, nothing really major happened in my life, until I met you."

"That's quite the story."

"Yeah, sorry to unload all my baggage at once like that."

"No, it's... it's fine. I've heard a fair number of unusual and, often tragic tales from many others before, but you are the first that I've known personally. I'm not very experienced with comforting others, as you might imagine, but I... would like to help with this, if you want."

"Well, I definitely appreciate the offer, believe me, but I've already been to a whole slew of mystics _and_ psychics, and they all told me that the memories aren't just covered up or suppressed or whatever; they're straight up gone, like, completely erased."

"That does pose quite the challenge." Raven admitted. "And of what I know, only exceptionally powerful beings, and those related to them by blood, would be able to so completely remove a person's memories this way."

"Does that include you?"

"It does, but only the one who took them in the first place would have the power to restore them."

"So it's hopeless?"

"It would seem that way... You don't seem very upset about that."

"Well, five years ago, that probably would have sent me even further into depression than I already was, but now? My entire personality is built from a specific point onward, and to add in_ another_ four or five on top of that... I don't even know if I'd be the same person after effectively doubling my life experience. I dunno, I just sorta, stopped caring about it after a while. Is that weird?"

"I don't think so. I think it's very reasonable to want to avoid that kind of risk. Sense of self is an incredibly important thing to demons, and most would probably feel the same way you do."

"Speaking of demons, you should probably go talk to Melanie before she leaves for the night; you were only in there for an hour, but it was already kinda late when we got back. Oh, hey, we're takin' the boys with us, right?"

"I don't see why not." Raven said, before leaving to finish the final task of the day.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, and with no results, Raven was fairly sure she was too late. She'd exhausted every plausible location she could think of, and was close to giving up for the night when she felt a wave of magic hit her.

Although she knew there were no registered magic users in either the student or staff rosters other than her and Jinx, it still wouldn't have been cause for concern if not for the fact that it was _chaos_ magic she'd felt. It'd lasted less than a second, and there was no trace of it now, but she'd been exposed to far too much of it _not_ to recognize even more.

She knew it couldn't have been Jinx's, for both the obvious reason, and the fact that this didn't _feel_ like Jinx's. It felt similar, enough so that if she hadn't already muted Jinx's aura, this blip wouldn't have even registered with her, but she had no doubt there was another source somewhere relatively close.

She spread her senses out, searching for possible candidates. Curiosity turned to confusion, and then frustration as she got a couple of miles out without finding anything. Her awareness was starting to get a little thin, so she pulled herself back together, not noticing another presence until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Instinct took over, and before either of them could blink, Raven had the offending party pinned to the wall under threat of the void-laden spikes currently pressed against their vital points.

"You know what?" Melanie said. "That's on me for sneaking up on a demon."

Raven quickly recalled her power. "It certainly isn't among the wisest moves one can make, especially at night. I've been trying to find you for a little while now, I need to talk to you."

"Shoot."

"My teammates and I will be leaving for a while. I'm due for a visit home."

"Home... you're all taking a trip to the Underworld?"

"Yes, my parents will eventually start to worry if I don't show up at some point, and I think we'd all like to prevent that."

"I'd have to agree; are you leaving tomorrow, then?"

"Ideally."

"Alright, I'll let the other staff know. Is that everything you needed?" Raven nodded, bidding her goodbye and teleporting back to her room.

She'd have thought that Jinx would be asleep by now, or at least be trying to. Instead, she found her obsessively braiding and unbraiding her hair in different fashions.

"Are you having trouble with that?"

"Nah, it's just been a while since I've actually been able to _do_ anything with my hair. Normally, it stays up on its own, even when it's soaked, so I don't have many opportunities to style it."

"I wasn't aware of that. I simply thought it was your preferred look."

"I mean, I don't _hate_ the way it looks most of the time, but it would be nice to be able to do something else with it sometimes, ya know?"

"Hmm, I suppose I don't; I've never cared much for doing anything with mine other than keeping it clean."

"What? But you have great hair!"

"You think so?" She pulled a snowy lock in front to look at it. "It's always just been sort of, there, to me."

"So you've just worn it loose your whole life?"

"Well, my mother did attempt to get me interested in that sort of thing when I was younger, but that didn't go on very long as she's never been one to try and force anything onto her children."

"Uh, how many of you are there, anyway? You said you had a few siblings."

"I'm the oldest of seven, with the youngest being two. Most of them are more... energetic than I am, and they can be a bit much to handle all at once."

"Wait, regular energetic or demon energetic?"

"The latter. I'll see if I can keep the introductions to one at a time."

"What about your dad? Is there anything I need to know beforehand?"

"The only advice I can give you is don't lie to him, don't interrupt him, and pray to a god that _isn't_ him that my mother is there when we talk to him."

"Good to know... Hey, is it... is it ever, hard, having someone like Trigon for a dad?"

Raven took on a pensive expression as she thought about her answer. "At times, yes. From the moment I was born, my upbringing was decidedly different from that of my siblings'. As the first born of Trigon the Terrible, I am, naturally, more gifted than most demons. So much so, in fact, that my body would have burned out from the excess power if most of it hadn't been sealed off from me. Aside from that, I was also raised to one day take my father's throne, whereas my siblings are not subject to the same burden of expectation."

"Wait, so all the shit I've seen you do, that's you holding back?"

"Not of my own volition, but yes. Would you mind if we stopped talking about this; I'd prefer not to dwell on my weaknesses."

"Oh, yeah, sure. I should be getting to sleep, anyway; gotta be well rested for a descent into Hell, ya know."

"More than most." Raven said, switching off the lights and finding something to do on her phone for the next few hours.

Line Break

"Alright, so we've got the candles, the sacred salts, the blood... Uh, whose blood is it, exactly?" Jinx questioned.

"I have no idea." Raven admitted. "I took this from the storeroom in my father's church, so it was likely from a ritualistic sacrifice."

"...Okay, so is that everything we need, then?"

"As far as supplies go, but we still need a place to perform the spell; this portal will scar the ground permanently."

"Alright, well, while you find us a place to set up, I'm gonna tell the guys it's time to go."

Line Break

It didn't take long to find them, which wasn't a surprise, given their sheer presence together and the fact that they were usually doing something ridiculous that either she or one of the staff would have to put a stop to. Not Raven, though. She preferred to watch, or, if the activity was deemed chaotic enough, join in herself, at which point, Jinx tended to just give up and get out of the way.

Today was pretty tame, it seemed, as she found Mammoth engaged in an arm-wrestling match with Mr. Cell with Gizmo watching from the side. It actually seemed to be an even match between them, as weird as that was, and Jinx decided to stick around to see the outcome.

They must have been going for a while before she showed up, because it didn't take long after for the winner to be declared.

"Holy shit." Jinx said quietly. "I don't think I've ever seen that happen before." It wasn't something Jinx paid a lot of attention to unless they were an enemy, but without his usual lab coat, it became much more prominent that their chemistry teacher had all the definition of a marble statue, with apparently more than enough power to go with it. He nodded to the three of them, momentarily raising a brow at Jinx before bidding a quick goodbye.

"First for everything, I guess." Gizmo said.

"Yeah, but I didn't even realize he was a meta." Jinx said. "How ya doin', Baran?"

"I'm fine." He shrugged. "There's always someone stronger out there; can't get hung up on not being better than everyone."

"Glad to hear it, cuz it's time to go."

"So we're really doing this, huh?"

"Yeah!" Jinx said excitedly. "Don't tell me you're afraid of a little fire and brimstone."

"No, just the things that live in it." Mammoth said, crossing his arms.

Line Break

It seemed to Raven that her presence, understandably intimidating as it was, was something her fellow students simply wouldn't be getting used to any time soon. Even after being there for months, she could still effortlessly part a crowd just by going near it, and while it was undeniably convenient, it had ceased to be amusing some time ago.

_"I wonder if Father feels this way with everyone? He certainly has more experience with it than I do."_

Figuring she was getting nowhere by looking on her own, she decided to find the nearest staff member to ask where she could go.

"Oh, good morning, Raven." Mr. Jacobs said. "I've actually been meaning to talk to you myself; I'm glad I caught you before you left."

"Hello, I was hoping you could tell me if there was an appropriate place on the grounds from which to open a portal."

"Ah, yes, Ms. Fields already informed me of your departure. You should find the school's basement serviceable; no one uses that floor these days, so a bit of damage to the cement won't matter. Now, there is the little matter concerning your lessons."

"Is there an issue with my progress?"

"Quite the opposite, in fact." Mr. Jacobs smiled. "You've advanced more quickly than I had anticipated. The problem is that I am being called away on assignment again, and this one will last much longer than the last. With this in mind, the Headmistress has approved an aptitude test, which will determine whether further lessons are required. I won't be here when you take it, but I was the one to write it up, so I know you should have no problems passing."

"That's good to hear. Nothing against you personally, of course, but it will be nice to have one less subject to worry about."

"I understand; good luck with your father, by the way."

"I may need a bit more than luck in order to placate him." Raven sighed. "And that's without him knowing what Jinx is..."

Line Break

"Alright, no one needs to go to the bathroom before we leave, right?" Jinx looked between Mammoth and Gizmo, both answering in the negative. "Good, we ready, Rae?"

"One last thing." Raven said, opening a hole in the air in front of her and reaching in to pull out Lilith, setting her down in the center of the group. Next, she produced two vials from the folds of her cloak, levitating them and spilling the blood over the salt lines of the pentagram.

Once again reverting to her first language, Raven began chanting the words necessary to open the dimensional barriers and allow them to travel through into the Underworld. To the humans present, it didn't sound like anything but guttural, inhuman gibberish, but there were no doubts among them that it was working as the circle surrounding them started glowing red.

As Raven kept going, she steadily got louder and faster, and the light grew brighter and brighter, until the red shifted instantly to blinding white, and everything fell silent.

When everything settled, Raven looked at her three guests, each of them looking awestruck at their new surroundings, while Lilith climbed onto her shoulder, seeming very happy to be home.

"Welcome to Hell."

**A/N: Okay, I really went back and forth on this chapter for a while, specifically regarding Raven's interaction with Jinx's spark and whether what happened was too much progression at one time, but ultimately, I'm satisfied, as this will not change the pacing, but rather just served as a way of having Raven realize she might not be as straight as she thought.**


End file.
